Do party positions affect the public's policy preferences? Experimental evidence on support for family policies

Elisabeth Grewenig, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner and Ludger Woessmann

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2020, vol. 179, issue C, 523-543

Abstract: The standard assumption of exogenous policy preferences implies that parties set their positions according to their voters’ preferences. Focusing on family policies, we investigate the reverse effect: Are the electorates’ policy preferences responsive to party positions? In a representative German survey, we inform randomized treatment groups about the positions of political parties on two disputed family policies, child care subsidy and universal student aid. In both experiments, the information treatment aligns policy preferences of specific partisan groups with their preferred party's position, implying endogenous policy preferences. The treatment also affects non-partisan swing voters, suggesting that party positioning can affect the public's preferences beyond their partisans.

Keywords: Political parties; Partisanship; Survey experiment; Information; Endogenous preferences; Voters; Family policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D83 H52 I28 J13 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:179:y:2020:i:c:p:523-543

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.09.006

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