How Information Affects Support for Education Spending: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Germany and the United States

Martin R. West, Ludger Woessmann, Philipp Lergetporer and Katharina Werner
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Martin R. West: Harvard Graduate School of Education, NBER, and CESifo
Philipp Lergetporer: Ifo Institute at the University of Munich and CESifo

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: To study whether current spending levels and public knowledge of them contribute to transatlantic differences in policy preferences, we implement parallel survey experiments in Germany and the United States. In both countries, support for increased education spending and teacher salaries falls when respondents receive information about existing levels. Treatment effects vary by prior knowledge in a manner consistent with information effects rather than priming. Support for salary increases is inversely related to salary levels across American states, suggesting that salary differences could explain much of Germans’ lower support for increases. Information about the tradeoffs between specific spending categories shifts preferences from class-size reduction towards alternative purposes.

Keywords: policy preferences; cross-country comparison; Germany; United States; education spending; information; survey experiments JEL Classification: H52; I22; D72; D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/resea ... 4-2017_woessmann.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: How information affects support for education spending: Evidence from survey experiments in Germany and the United States (2018)
Working Paper: How information affects support for education spending: Evidence from survey experiments in Germany and the United States (2018)
Working Paper: How Information Affects Support for Education Spending: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Germany and the United States (2016)
Working Paper: How Information Affects Support for Education Spending: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Germany and the United States (2016)
Working Paper: How Information Affects Support for Education Spending: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Germany and the United States (2016)
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