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Till austerity do us part? A survey experiment on support for the euro in Italy

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  • Lucio Baccaro

    (28304Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany)

  • Björn Bremer

    (28304Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne,Germany)

  • Erik Neimanns

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened Italy’s fiscal outlook by increasing public debt. If interest rates were to rise, it would become more likely that Italy experiences a financial crisis and requires a European bailout. How does making EU funds conditional on austerity and structural reforms affect Italians’ support for the euro? Based on a novel survey experiment, this article shows that a majority of voters chooses to remain in the euro if a bailout does not involve conditionality, but the pro-euro majority turns into a relative majority for ‘Italexit’ if the bailout is contingent on austerity policies. Blaming different actors for the fiscal crisis has little effect on support. These results suggest that conditionality may turn Italian voters against the euro.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucio Baccaro & Björn Bremer & Erik Neimanns, 2021. "Till austerity do us part? A survey experiment on support for the euro in Italy," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(3), pages 401-423, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:22:y:2021:i:3:p:401-423
    DOI: 10.1177/14651165211004772
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    Cited by:

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    2. Catherine E De Vries, 2022. "Analysing how crises shape mass and elite preferences and behaviour in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(1), pages 161-168, March.
    3. Lindner, Vincent & Eckert, Sandra & Nölke, Andreas, 2022. "Political science research on the reasons for the (non) adoption and (non) implementation of EMU reform proposals: The state of the art," SAFE Working Paper Series 339, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.

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