TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Blinder, Alan S.
AU  - Krueger, Alan B.
        TI  - What Does the Public Know about Economic Policy, and How Does It Know It?
        PY  - 2004/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 1324
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp1324
        AB  - Public opinion influences politicians, and therefore influences public policy decisions. What
are the roles of self-interest, knowledge, and ideology in public opinion formation? And how
do people learn about economic issues? Using a new, specially-designed survey, we find
that most respondents express a strong desire to be well informed on economic policy
issues, and that television is their dominant source of information. On a variety of major
policy issues (e.g., taxes, social security, health insurance), ideology is the most important
determinant of public opinion, while measures of self-interest are the least important.
Knowledge about the economy ranks somewhere in between.
        KW  - knowledge
KW  - public opinion
KW  - ideology
        ER  -