TY - JOUR
T1 - Three worlds of austerity
T2 - voter congruence over fiscal trade-offs in Germany, Spain and the UK
AU - Hübscher, Evelyne
AU - Sattler, Thomas
AU - Truchlewski, Zbigniew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics.
PY - 2022/6/2
Y1 - 2022/6/2
N2 - Political opposition to fiscal adjustments has varied significantly across countries. Our analysis links this variation to differences in the congruence of voter attitudes towards fiscal trade-offs across political blocs in different countries. These differences in attitudes, in turn, coincide with the implications of the distinct macroeconomic growth strategies that these countries pursue. Based on original survey data, we show that in Germany, supporters of different parties not only share similar views on the appropriate size of fiscal adjustment, but also on how to distribute these cuts across various spending items. In Spain, there is fundamental disagreement on the amount of austerity, but voters largely agree on the composition of fiscal adjustments. In the UK, there is disagreement between voters of diverging political blocs on both accounts. Variation in public attitudes, therefore, gives rise to very diverse political dynamics surrounding fiscal adjustments in different countries.
AB - Political opposition to fiscal adjustments has varied significantly across countries. Our analysis links this variation to differences in the congruence of voter attitudes towards fiscal trade-offs across political blocs in different countries. These differences in attitudes, in turn, coincide with the implications of the distinct macroeconomic growth strategies that these countries pursue. Based on original survey data, we show that in Germany, supporters of different parties not only share similar views on the appropriate size of fiscal adjustment, but also on how to distribute these cuts across various spending items. In Spain, there is fundamental disagreement on the amount of austerity, but voters largely agree on the composition of fiscal adjustments. In the UK, there is disagreement between voters of diverging political blocs on both accounts. Variation in public attitudes, therefore, gives rise to very diverse political dynamics surrounding fiscal adjustments in different countries.
KW - deficits
KW - fiscal policy
KW - growth models
KW - spending cuts
KW - voters
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162228603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/ser/mwac025
DO - 10.1093/ser/mwac025
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85162228603
SN - 1475-1461
VL - 21
SP - 959
EP - 983
JO - Socio-Economic Review
JF - Socio-Economic Review
IS - 2
ER -