Our paper “Attitudes towards carbon taxation in the EU: messenger effects vs. content effects” was just published (open access) in the Journal of Public Policy (link). Using a pre-registered vignette experiment in Germany and Poland (n=3,192), we test how support for EU carbon taxes shifts when identical proposals are attributed to the European Commission, the national government, or a foreign government. Higher tax rates reduce support, especially among those most directly affected. Trust in the promoting institution raises baseline support across the board, but we find no evidence that national identity or euroscepticism triggers actor-specific backlash: eurosceptic and nationally conservative citizens oppose EU-wide carbon taxes regardless of who is proposing them. Trust lifts baseline support, but does not shield policies from cost sensitivity. Led by Alessio Levis, with Silvia Pianta, from our part of the Horizon EU CAPABLE project.
