When Distrust Goes Viral: Causal Effects of Covid-19 on European Political Attitudes

Gianmarco Daniele, Andrea Martinangeli, Francesco Passarelli, Willem Sas () and Lisa Windsteiger

No 8804, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: To investigate how Covid-19 is shaping the way Europeans think about institutions, we conducted a large online survey experiment during the first wave of the epidemic (June). With a randomised survey ow we varied whether respondents are given Covid-related treatment questions first, before answering the outcome questions. We find that the crisis has severely undermined trust in politicians, the media, the EU and social welfare spending financed by taxes. This is mainly due to economic insecurity, but also because of health concerns. We also uncover a rallying effect around (scientific) expertise combined with populist policies losing ground.

Keywords: Covid-19; institutional trust; political attitudes; online survey experiment; European Union; welfare; taxation; populism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H51 H53 H55 O52 P52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8804

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