Support for bigger government: The principle‐implementation gap and COVID‐19

We study the COVID‐19 pandemic's effect on government and market attitudes using within‐subject comparisons of survey responses elicited before and after the onset of the pandemic. We find that participants develop significantly less favorable opinions toward government and markets; and that pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Contemporary economic policy 2023-04, Vol.41 (2), p.243-261
Main Authors: Goff, Sandra H., Ifcher, John, Zarghamee, Homa, Reents, Alex, Wade, Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
Economic policy
Government
government attitudes
market attitudes
Markets
Original
pandemic
Pandemics
political ideology
principle‐implementation gap
Public opinion
Redistribution
Responses
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Summary:We study the COVID‐19 pandemic's effect on government and market attitudes using within‐subject comparisons of survey responses elicited before and after the onset of the pandemic. We find that participants develop significantly less favorable opinions toward government and markets; and that participants increase support for bigger government significantly and for redistribution, in general, marginally significantly. There is no evidence this leads to an increase in support for specific redistributive policies, nor for government to play a larger role in specific functions. Our results echo the stubbornness of American preferences for redistribution and suggest the presence of a principle‐implementation gap.
ISSN:1074-3529
1465-7287
DOI:10.1111/coep.12593