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What People Believe About Monetary Finance and What We Can(’t) Do About It: Evidence from a Large-Scale, Multi-Country Survey Experiment

Author

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  • Cars Hommes
  • Julien Pinter
  • Isabelle Salle

Abstract

We conduct an experiment within a large-scale household survey on public finance in France, the Netherlands and Italy. We elicit prior beliefs via open-ended questions and introduce a measure of macroeconomic policy literacy. An educational blog post from a central bank (CB) that opposes monetary-financed policies preceded by a short video on public finance can induce less support for monetary-financed proposals and more support for fiscal discipline and CB independence, no matter the respondent’s level of literacy. However, prior beliefs matter, and contradictory information may be polarizing. Information affects the respondents’ views by shifting their inflation and tax expectations associated to these policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Cars Hommes & Julien Pinter & Isabelle Salle, 2023. "What People Believe About Monetary Finance and What We Can(’t) Do About It: Evidence from a Large-Scale, Multi-Country Survey Experiment," Staff Working Papers 23-36, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:23-36
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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Central bank research; Fiscal policy; Monetary policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E70 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods

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