The Public (Mis)Understanding of Fiscal Trade-offs – Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Poland

Jakub Sawulski and Aneta Kiełczewska

Ekonomista, 2025, issue 1, 82-106

Abstract: The literature on fiscal attitudes offers evidence of an interesting pattern: citizens simultaneously want higher government spending and lower taxes. However, recent studies argue that this may be just an artifact arising from misleading survey design. When properly informed about the fiscal trade-offs, citizens express much more coherent views. We contribute to the discussion using a survey of 1,800 adult citizens in Poland. By a split-sample experiment, we show that the answers about the desired role of the state vary greatly depending on whether the question includes a reference to taxes. Using the regression framework, we identify gender, educational level and individual income as significant determinants of the scale of misunderstanding of fiscal trade-offs.

Keywords: public opinion; policy preferences; survey experiments; fiscal attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D83 H11 H30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aoq:ekonom:y:2025:i:1:p:82-106

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