The effect of information framing on policy support: Experimental evidence from urban policies

How does information influence policy support? We administer a large-scale representative survey with randomised video treatments to test how different policy frames affect citizens’ attitudes towards urban tolls in two large European metropolitan areas without tolls, Berlin-Brandenburg and Paris-Ile de France. Providing information on air pollution increases support by up to 11.4%p, information on climate change and time savings increase support by 7.1 and 6.5%p, respectively. Treatment effects are stronger in the Paris region, where initial support is lower. We also identify treatment effect heterogeneity across different socioeconomic characteristics. Our findings imply that targeted communication of policy co-benefits can increase policy support across different population groups.