Populist attitudes, fiscal illusion and fiscal preferences: evidence from Dutch households
利用荷兰家庭数据，研究发现民粹主义态度越强的人越倾向于支持扩张性财政政策，加剧财政幻觉风险；提高金融素养和信息公开有助于形成审慎的财政偏好，但素养的作用受民粹情绪影响。
Abstract It is well documented that the public is often poorly informed about the economy. In the domain of fiscal policy, this may make voters susceptible to favour spending, while underestimating its costs ( fiscal illusion ). While politicians may have more information to judge the need for prudent economic policies, voters may be less inclined to support prudent fiscal policy if they do not believe that these politicians act in their best interest—an idea that in recent decades has become more prevalent. Using a novel dataset from the Netherlands, this paper examines whether strong populist ideas lead to more expansionary fiscal preferences, thereby reinforcing the risk of fiscal illusion. The findings indicate that respondents' populist attitudes significantly predict their fiscal preferences. Additionally, higher literacy and information provision contribute to more prudent fiscal preferences. However, the impact of literacy is conditioned by the level of populist sentiment. Poorly literate respondents show higher support for tax relief only when holding strong populist attitudes, not when expressing lower levels of populist sentiment.