The digitalization of low-income economies has made it easier for governments to collect tax, yet many still fail to raise adequate revenues. Why would policy makers in urgent need of resources not fully leverage these new tools? I argue that governments remain constrained by public opinion:...

Antitrust policy aims to reduce market concentration and increase competition among firms. Contemporary antitrust is sensitive to both domestic and international considerations. Internationally, the market is dominated by the largest firms, raising questions about the competitiveness of domestic...

Transparency portals in development cooperation serve two main functions: accountability to a specialist audience and communication with the wider public. In this policy brief, we conduct an international comparison to demonstrate how transparency portals could better fulfil these requirements....

We reproduce Shoub, Kelsey, Katelyn E. Stauffer, and Miyeon Song (May 2021). "Do Female Officers Police Differently? Evidence from Traffic Stops," with alternative specifications and interpretation of the results. While our reproduction confirms that female police officers are less likely to...

How domestic constituents respond to signals of weakness in foreign wars remains an important question in international relations. This paper studies the impact of battlefield casualties and media coverage on public demand for war termination. To identify the effect of troop fatalities, we...

Marketing faces challenges in the communication process while attempting to persuade the consumer, as external stimuli may influence the target consumer's response, and in the digital age, audiences choose how to receive messages, even if they opt to do so. Counter-marketing, the 'dark side',...

The paper finds that the post-pandemic inflation surge and subsequent decline from 2021 to 2024 had no significant impact on public support for the Euro for the EA-19 and for most individual member states of the EA-19. From 2021 to 2024, net public support for the euro remained remarkably stable...

The chocolate supply chain exemplifies the social and environmental challenges within global food systems. Growing awareness of environmental impact and ethical production practices is increasingly shaping consumer choices and influencing food policy. This highlights the need for an integrated...

This study explores public opinion for reducing fossil fuel subsidies in Angola, identifies strategies that can shift public opinion, and analyzes variations in support based on respondents’ area of residency and gender. It uses data from a survey of 598 respondents and focus groups involving...

We examine how individuals update their views on climate change when exposed to competing advocacy or skeptical signals on social media. In a representative survey experiment of 1,633 adults in Italy, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) exposure to climate-advocacy...

The current report presents findings of a research project that explored attitudes towards welfare and redistributive policies among Irish residents. Public support for the welfare state is an important foundation for democratic governments to pursue the policies needed to alleviate poverty in...

This paper studies the causal impact of female political representation on legislative behavior, social attitudes, and gender-based crime. Using a regression discontinuity design based on close mixed-gender electoral contests, we compare electorates that narrowly elected female versus male...

The Galápagos Islands face the challenge of conserving their biodiversity while moving toward a more sustainable tourism model. In August 2024, after 24 years without changes, the entrance fee for the Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve was updated: from USD 100 to USD 200 for foreign...

The Country Opinion Survey in Grenada assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Grenada perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector,...

The Country Opinion Survey in Saint Lucia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Saint Lucia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private...

This paper studies public opinion in the context of strong social norms that can induce conformity and self-censorship. We present a model that highlights how social pressure can affect the public expression of opinion either through a change in publicly stated views (conformity) or by inducing...

How does exposure to Islamist terrorism change perceptions of the share of Muslims and immigrants? We conduct a large-scale survey that measures misperceptions towards minority groups in four European countries. Our results show that terror attacks in the past increased misperceptions of the...

The ifo Education Survey is a representative opinion survey of the German voting-age population on education topics that has been conducted annually since 2014. It covers public preferences on a wide range of education policy issues ranging from early childhood education, schools, and...