Experimental Design
Survey 1 (N=4,000):
The first survey is conducted on a representative sample of 4,000 German adults and consists of two components.
1. Elicitation of first-order concerns (N=1,000):
A randomly selected subsample of 1,000 respondents does not participate in any experiment. Instead, they answer an open-ended question asking what arguments, in their view, speak for or against allowing the state to incur additional debt to finance public expenditure. They then report their policy preferences regarding debt-financed spending and the importance of the topic for their voting behavior. We use text analysis to identify the most prevalent concerns, which subsequently inform the treatments in Survey 2.
2. Perspective-priming experiment (N=3,000):
The remaining 3,000 respondents are randomly assigned to one of three groups (1,000 each): taxpayer priming, public goods priming, or pure control group. Treated respondents are asked to answer an open-ended question designed to make a specific perspective salient. In the taxpayer priming treatment, respondents describe taxes they personally find burdensome; in the public goods priming treatment, they describe public goods from which they personally benefit. The control group receives no such question. We encourage respondents to elaborate at length to increase salience. Afterwards, all groups answer the same set of questions about their preferences towards debt-financed government spending and its importance for their voting behavior.
Survey 2 (N=7,500):
The second survey is conducted on a representative sample of 7,500 German adults. Respondents are randomly assigned to six different treatment groups and one control group (roughly 1,070 each). Each treatment group receives a brief information treatment presenting one of the most prevalent concerns about debt-financed government spending, as identified from the open-ended question on first-order concerns in Survey 1. Specifically, the six treatments discuss narratives concerning public investment needs, the state's capacity to act during crisis, economic growth effects, borrowing costs, intergenerational fairness, and governance issues. The control group receives no information.
Afterwards, all respondents answer the same questions as in Survey 1 regarding policy preferences and voting relevance. We include two additional outcome measures: (i) willingness to sign a petition for or against debt-financed spending, and (ii) an open-ended question about the main consideration that comes to mind when thinking about debt-financed government spending.
Survey start and end dates:
Survey 1 start date: 2025-10-02
Survey 1 end date: 2025-11-02
Survey 2 start date: 2026-02-18
Survey 2 end date: 2026-03-13