Can policy-packaging increase public support for costly policies? Insights from a choice experiment on policies against vehicle emissions
Michael Wicki, Robert Huber and Thomas Bernauer investigated whether policy-packaging increases public support for costly policies. Their research was published in the Journal of Public Policy.
Public support is usually a precondition for the adoption and successful implementation of costly policies. The researchers argue that such support is easier to achieve with policy-packages that incorporate primary and ancillary measures. They specifically distinguish command-and-control and market-based measures as primary measures and argue that the former will usually garner more public support than the latter given the low-visibility tendency of costs associated with command-and-control measures. Nevertheless, if included in a policy-package, ancillary measures are likely to increase public support by reducing negative effects of primary measures. Based on a choice experiment with a representative sample of 2,034 Swiss citizens, the scientists assessed these arguments with respect to political efforts to reduce vehicle emissions. The empirical analysis supported the argument that policy-packaging affects public support positively, particularly generating more support when ancillary measures are added. Lastly, the researchers ultimately observe that command-and-control measures obtain more public support than market-based instruments.
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