Voting under Debtor Distress
Jakub Grossmann, Štěpán Jurajda
Electoral Studies,
June
2025
Abstract
There is growing evidence on the role of economic conditions in the recent successes of populist and extremist parties. However, little is known about the role of over-indebtedness, even though debtor distress has grown in Europe following the financial crisis. We study the unique case of the Czech Republic, where by 2017, nearly one in ten citizens had been served at least one debtor distress warrant even though the country consistently features low unemployment. Our municipality-level difference-in-differences analysis asks about the voting consequences of a rise in debtor distress following a 2001 deregulation of consumer-debt collection. We find that debtor distress has a positive effect on support for (new) extreme right and populist parties, but a negative effect on a (traditional) extreme-left party. The effects of debtor distress we uncover are robust to whether and how we control for economic hardship; the effects of debtor distress and economic hardship are of similar magnitude, but operate in opposing directions across the political spectrum.
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Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences
Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Guido Schwerdt, Simon Wiederhold
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,
December
2024
Abstract
We investigate public preferences for equity-enhancing policies in access to early child care, using a survey experiment with a representative sample of the German population (n ≈ 4, 800). We observe strong misperceptions about migrant-native inequalities in early child care that vary by respondents’ age and right-wing voting preferences. Randomly providing information about the actual extent of inequalities has a nuanced impact on the support for equity-enhancing policy reforms: it increases support for respondents who initially underestimated these inequalities, and tends to decrease support for those who initially overestimated them. This asymmetric effect leads to a more consensual policy view, substantially decreasing the polarization in policy support between under- and overestimators. Our results suggest that correcting misperceptions can align public policy preferences, potentially leading to less polarized debates about how to address inequalities and discrimination.
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Non-Standard Errors
Albert J. Menkveld, Anna Dreber, Felix Holzmeister, Juergen Huber, Magnus Johannesson, Michael Koetter, Markus Kirchner, Sebastian Neusüss, Michael Razen, Utz Weitzel, Shuo Xia, et al.
Journal of Finance,
No. 3,
2024
Abstract
In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a datagenerating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in sample estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidencegenerating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: non-standard errors. To study them, we let 164 teams test six hypotheses on the same sample. We find that non-standard errors are sizeable, on par with standard errors. Their size (i) co-varies only weakly with team merits, reproducibility, or peer rating, (ii) declines significantly after peer-feedback, and (iii) is underestimated by participants.
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23.05.2024 • 15/2024
Veranstaltungshinweis: „Europas Populisten im Aufwind: Ökonomische Ursachen und demokratische Herausforderungen“
Kurz vor der Europawahl diskutieren Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler am 3. Juni 2024 ab 18 Uhr an der Leopoldina in Halle (Saale) über den Aufschwung populistischer Parteien in Europa, dessen ökonomische Ursachen und die damit verbundenen demokratischen Herausforderungen.
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Media Response April 2025 Steffen Müller: Trotz bundesweiten Höchststands: Zahl der Insolvenzen in Sachsen-Anhalt stagniert in: ARD tagesschau, 14.04.2025 Steffen Müller: Zahl der…
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Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences
Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Guido Schwerdt, Simon Wiederhold
Abstract
We investigate public preferences for equity-enhancing policies in access to early child care, using a survey experiment with a representative sample of the German population (n ≈ 4, 800). We observe strong misperceptions about migrant-native inequalities in early child care that vary by respondents’ age and right-wing voting preferences. Randomly providing information about the actual extent of inequalities has a nuanced impact on the support for equity-enhancing policy reforms: it increases support for respondents who initially underestimated these inequalities, and tends to decrease support for those who initially overestimated them. This asymmetric effect leads to a more consensual policy view, substantially decreasing the polarization in policy support between under- and overestimators. Our results suggest that correcting misperceptions can align public policy preferences, potentially leading to less polarized debates about how to address inequalities and discrimination.
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