Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149279 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6192
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
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.
Subjects: 
policy preferences
cross-country comparison
Germany
United States
education spending
information
survey experiments
JEL: 
H52
I22
D72
D83
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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