The effect of international actors on public support for government spending decisions

Pablo M. Pinto, Stephanie Rickard and James Raymond Vreeland

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Does the intervention of an international organization in domestic politics render policy change more popular? While voters may ultimately care only about policy outcomes, the involvement of international actors often seems to lead to resentment. Still, citizens may have greater faith in the wisdom of international actors than in their own government. As others have argued, a well-respected international actor might provide a cue, especially for voters considering controversial policies like spending cuts. We test this argument in a novel pre–post experimental panel study conducted in Spain. We find that citizens become less opposed to unpopular spending cuts when informed that they are required by an international institution. The effects differ, however, across the two organizations that we test: They are stronger for the European Union than for the International Monetary Fund. Our findings lend support to studies arguing that the endorsement of specific international organizations can help push through otherwise unpopular policies.

JEL-codes: D72 F53 H60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2025-03-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in International Studies Quarterly, 31, March, 2025, 69(1). ISSN: 1468-2478

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125938/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:125938

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().