The Effect of Framing on Policy Support: Experimental Evidence From Urban Policies

Do citizens support policy instruments because they appreciate their effects or because they are convinced by their objectives? The paper presented in this this Decarbonization Seminar/Joint Seminar ZEW and MISES administers a large-scale representative survey with randomised video treatments to test how different policy frames -- time savings, health and environment -- affect citizens' attitudes towards urban tolls in two large European metropolitan areas, Berlin-Brandenburg and Paris-Ile de France. Providing information on air pollution increases support by up to 11.4%p, information on climate change and time savings increases support by 7.1 and 6.5 %p, respectively. The paper also examines treatment effect heterogeneity across population groups and the support of different systems to recycle revenues.  A causal mediation analysis demonstrates that the observed changes in policy support are framing effects and do not operate via changes in beliefs about policy effects. Thus, the authors exhibit a new effect in public opinion about economic policies: Different specified objectives for the same policy design can affect citizen's views differently. Targeted information to specific population groups could hence significantly alter policy support.