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Using public opinion surveys conducted in the member states of the European Union, this paper seeks to provide a systematic understanding of public support for the EMU project and European-level monetary policy authority. We develop models of support for EU monetary policy that incorporate a utilitarian component and elements of multilevel governance that is emerging within the EU. These models are tested at the aggregate level of survey respondents. The results show that variations in attitudes to the common currency are driven by collectively-based considerations of the costs and benefits associated with the common currency project as well as the interaction of European-level politics and the domestic politics of the member states. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

Abstract. Using public opinion surveys conducted in the member states of the European Union, this paper seeks to provide a systematic understanding of public support for the EMU project and European–level monetary policy authority. We develop models of support for EU monetary policy that incorporate a utilitarian component and elements of multilevel governance that is emerging within the EU. These models are tested at the aggregate level of survey respondents. The results show that variations in attitudes to the common currency are driven by collectively–based considerations of the costs and benefits associated with the common currency project as well as the interaction of European–level politics and the domestic politics of the member states.

A type of conventional wisdom has developed among many scholars that industrialized countries with independent central banks produce lower relative inflation rates than countries that do not have these institutions. We argue that the relative importance of central bank independence for fighting inflation changed fundamentally from the 1970s to the 1980s as a result of experiences in the advanced industrialized democracies, which led both Right and Left governments to move toward more neo-liberal macroeconomic policies. As governments made price stability more of a priority, the anti-inflationary effects of independent central banks would become much less pronounced. This hypothesis is tested and confirmed in the study in a multi-variate regression analysis using data from eighteen industrialized democracies.

A type of conventional wisdom has developed among many scholars that industrialized countries with independent central banks produce lower relative inflation rates than countries that do not have these institutions. We argue that the relative importance of central bank independence for fighting inflation changed fundamentally from the 1970s to the 1980s as a result of experiences in the advanced industrialized democracies, which led both Right & Left governments to move toward more neoliberal macroeconomic policies. As governments made price stability more of a priority, the anti-inflationary effects of independent central banks would become much less pronounced. This hypothesis is tested & confirmed in the study in a multivariate regression analysis using data from 18 industrialized democracies. 4 Tables, 1 Appendix, 69 References. Adapted from the source document.

What are the aggregate dynamics of public support for European integration in the 12 EU member states? And how can they be explained? Given that mass support for integration varies both across time and across countries, the article tests the proposition that both types of variation can be explained with the help of national economic conditions, timing of entry into the Union, and length of membership in it. Using aggregate Eurobarometer polls for the period between 1973 and 1993, we find that all three factors have significant impacts on support for a united Europe. However, the results also indicate that length of membership in the EU is somewhat more important than economic performance. The paper spells out some of the possible ramifications of these results.

Abstract. This article explores the sources of individual‐level variation in support economic privatization in seven European post‐Soviet countries. It tests economic utilitarian and psychological explanations of variations in support for economic privatization. The economic utilitarian explanation posits that individuals seek to maximize their potential material gains from economic liberalization. The psychological explanation posits that if individuals are generally risk averse, they are not likely to support economic privatization. These hypotheses are then tested using two separate regression models. The first model estimates pooled data from across all seven European post‐Soviet economies. The second model is a pooled analysis that interacts country‐specific dummy variables with each of the independent variables in order to examine the country‐specific effects of the responses. The results show that the economic utilitarian and psychological explanations are both strong predictors of why some support and others oppose privatization in the seven European post‐Soviet countries.