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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
We plan to survey N=2000 Russian Internet users; the survey will be administered by a marketing research firm. The sample will be stratified according to gender, age group (18-29, 39-39, 49-49 and 50+), and federal district (group of regions; there are 8 federal districts in Russia). The survey will be carried out in December 2021. The survey will take approximately 12 minutes to complete and will contain a pre-treatment part, a randomized treatment, and a post-treatment part measuring our variables of interest.
The pre-trial part of the questionnaire will include questions on socio-demographic background; political beliefs; cognitive style; trust toward experts; awareness of and experience with the Russian tax system.
This will be followed by the randomized tax information treatment. Respondents will be shown a 1-minute video with a calculation of the actual amount of taxes arising from their salary. For one half of the respondents, the calculation will only include the highly visible 13% income tax. For the other half, the calculation will also include the social insurance, amounting to some 30% of the salary, paid by the employer.
In the post-treatment part of the survey, we will ask a number of questions about one's the preferences toward government spending and redistributive policies. We will look at different aspects of redistributive preferences - attitudes toward the provision of transfers to people at the bottom of the social ladder (``redistribution to'') and the taxation of people at the top of the social ladder (``redistribution from''). There will be a question about whether government spending is too high, and questions about the belief in the need to increase or decrease government spending on specific needs. Questions will be asked regarding specific redistribution policies (the minimum wage and the food stamps), to measure generic beliefs about inequality and fairness of the economic system, to assess one's readiness to make charitable contributions or do unpaid work, to measure the perception of one's place in the income distribution, and to measure the belief that luck rather than effort is more important in determining life outcomes. There will be questions on the satisfaction with the government, satisfaction with the quality of public good provision, and the belief that the government spending is used for right purposes. Finally, we will ask about the individual's likelihood of future political (voting in elections, making donations to parties, participation in the management of their building, complaining about authorities) or economic (becoming entrepreneur, changing a job, working more or less, working abroad) action.
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After
We plan to survey N=2000 Russian Internet users; the survey will be administered by a marketing research firm. The sample will be stratified according to gender, age group (18-29, 39-39, 49-49 and 50+), and federal district (group of regions; there are 8 federal districts in Russia). The survey will be carried out in December 2021. The survey will take approximately 12 minutes to complete and will contain a pre-treatment part, a randomized treatment, and a post-treatment part measuring our variables of interest.
The pre-trial part of the questionnaire will include questions on socio-demographic background; political beliefs; cognitive style; trust toward experts; awareness of and experience with the Russian tax system.
This will be followed by the randomized tax information treatment. Respondents will be shown a 1-minute video with a calculation of the actual amount of taxes arising from their salary. For one half of the respondents, the calculation will only include the highly visible 13% income tax. For the other half, the calculation will also include the social insurance, amounting to some 30% of the salary, paid by the employer.
In the post-treatment part of the survey, we will ask a number of questions about one's the preferences toward government spending and redistributive policies. We will look at different aspects of redistributive preferences - attitudes toward the provision of transfers to people at the bottom of the social ladder (``redistribution to'') and the taxation of people at the top of the social ladder (``redistribution from''). There will be a question about whether government spending is too high, and questions about the belief in the need to increase or decrease government spending on specific needs. Questions will be asked regarding specific redistribution policies (the minimum wage and the food stamps), to measure generic beliefs about inequality and fairness of the economic system, to assess one's readiness to make charitable contributions or do unpaid work, to measure the perception of one's place in the income distribution, and to measure the belief that luck rather than effort is more important in determining life outcomes. There will be questions on the satisfaction with the government, satisfaction with the quality of public good provision, and the belief that the government spending is used for right purposes. Finally, we will ask about the individual's likelihood of future political (voting in elections, making donations to parties, participation in the management of their building, complaining about authorities) or economic (becoming entrepreneur, changing a job, working more or less, working abroad) action.
Up to N=1000 respondents will be recontacted six weeks later in a follow-up survey. The follow-up questionnaire will include some of the questions from the post-treatment part of the survey and will not involve new experimental interventions.
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