How information affects support for education spending: Evidence from survey experiments in Germany and the United States

Philipp Lergetporer, Guido Schwerdt, Katharina Werner, Martin R. West and Ludger Wößmann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ludger Woessmann

Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

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 higher salaries 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. Additional German experiments indicate that information effects extend to specific reform proposals and to other areas of public spending.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (82)

Published in Journal of Public Economics 167(2018): pp. 138-157

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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 (2017)
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)
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:lmu:muenar:62860

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics Ludwigstr. 28, 80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tamilla Benkelberg ().