Transport, Energy and Climate Economics (TrEnCE) - Next session

Speker: Sanchayan Banerjee - King's College London

Papier: Evaluating support for a meat tax policy: Experimental evidence from Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom 

Abstract: Meat consumption and willingness to reduce it may be linked to political ideology, with a common assumption that left-leaning individuals favour meat reduction policies more than right-leaning ones. However, rigorous evidence is lacking on this point. This study evaluates drivers that influence support for a meat tax policy and examines whether this support for meat reduction policies varies by self-reported political ideology. Specifically, we use a between-within subjects’ design using a nationally representative samples from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK (N=8000). Participants are first randomly assigned to one of the four treatment varying along two dimensions: framing (tax versus levy) and reflection (yes versus no). In each treatment, participants then see 6 pairs of 2 policy cards each, where we randomly vary four attributes of a hypothetical meat tax: cost, revenue redistribution, motivation, and outreach. We find that lower costs, direct redistribution, and EU outreach increases the support for a meat tax policy. Framing the tax as a levy or encouraging people to reflect on the pros and cons of the meat tax policy has no additional effect on policy support. Further, we find that right-wing voters support a baseline meat tax more than left-wing voters, but their support decreases when policies involve revenue redistribution, incorporate environmental costs, or emphasize environmental over health concerns. These patterns are partly explained by differences in Schwartz values across ideological groups. Our findings highlight the role of narratives in shaping political debates on meat taxation.

Relevant information :

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