The Effect of Economic Change and Elite Framing on Economic Preferences: A Survey Experiment

Paul Marx () and Gijs Schumacher ()
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Paul Marx: University of Bonn
Gijs Schumacher: University of Southern Denmark

No 7979, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: An unresolved question in political science is how economic downturns affect citizens' economic left-right preferences. Existing observational studies fail to isolate the effect of economic conditions and the effect of elite framing of these conditions. We therefore designed a survey experiment to evaluate how economic change in conjunction with different elite frames impact on citizens' preferences for economic policies. We hypothesise and demonstrate that the effects of these frames differ by income group and partisanship. Our survey experiment – carried out in the UK – demonstrates that poor economic prospects motivate support for unemployment benefits vis-à-vis deficit reduction. Emphasis on government debt and deficits increases support for the latter policy option. Also, we find support for the hypothesis that partisans are less responsive to the economy than independents.

Keywords: economic preferences; economic crises; elite framing; survey experiment; UK (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 Z18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Published - revised version published in: Journal of European Social Policy, 2016, 26 (1), 20-31.

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