Lorenz Meister

Populist parties use narratives about social injustice to portray climate policy as elite-driven and socially unjust. This study—based on a survey experiment with some 1,600 participants—examines how three common narratives about the costs associated with climate policy affect populist and climate-populist attitudes. The results show that the narrative highlighting the disproportionate burden on low-income households fuels climate-populist attitudes and undermines trust in democracy. This effect is particularly pronounced among women and low-income households as well as east German and conservative voter segments. The narrative portraying climate policy as harmful to the German economy, on the other hand, resonates most strongly with right-leaning voters, while the narrative claiming that businesses are failing to accept responsibility was found to fuel climate-populist attitudes primarily among male, east German, and left-leaning voters. Overall, the impact of narratives depends on a person’s individual circumstances and prior political experiences. Socially just and transparently communicated policies, however, can enhance public support for climate policy and help prevent populist exploitation.

Over the past 20 years, China has granted a conspicuous amount of loans to African countries. New loan data show that compared to Western multilateral loans, Chinese loans have relatively high interest rates and shorter maturities, tend to be highly collateralized, and are volatile over time. Thus, Western loans are generally more likely to be in the economic interest of the borrowing country. Furthermore, Chinese loans are focused on resource-rich countries that undertake fewer anti-corruption efforts, so local policymakers have more opportunities to feather their own nest. Finally, unlike Western loans, Chinese loans are not tied to any economic policy conditions. It seems worth considering for Western lenders to reduce the number and intensity of loan conditions to respect the sovereignty of the borrowing countries.

In 2020, there were simultaneous increases in the number of private persons participating on the stock market as well as in the number of employees working from home. Indeed, working from home is a robust determinant of stock ownership and partially explains the increase in 2020, with households without children benefiting the most in this manner. Furthermore, the effect of working from home on stock ownership is largest for low-income earners. Thus, working more from home has complex distributional consequences: It tends to expand the stock owner base by, in a broader sense, decreasing the stock market participation cost. While economic policy should not mandate working from home for the sole purpose of increasing stock ownership, it can facilitate stock market participation in other ways, such as by improving financial education.

While there is a broad consensus in the literature that stock ownership is associated with individual characteristics, such as wealth, income, risk preferences, and financial literacy, less is known about the dynamics of stock market participation (SMP). Major fluctuations in SMP are oftentimes related to political events, economic shocks, and technological disruptions. We discuss the literature that investigates some of these shocks, as well as personal life circumstances that determine SMP across various demographic groups. Consolidating the literature allows us to identify systematic drivers into and out of stock ownership, along with its distributional consequences. Major forces behind SMP fluctuations are changes in participation costs and benefits, risk exposure, economic policy uncertainty, income uncertainty, peer effects, and windfall gains.

Populistische Parteien nutzen Narrative über soziale Ungerechtigkeit, um Klimapolitik als von Eliten getrieben und unsozial darzustellen. Wie sich drei verbreitete Narrative über die mit klimapolitischen Maßnahmen verbundenen Kosten auf populistische und klimapopulistische Einstellungen auswirken, wird anhand eines Umfrageexperiments mit rund 1600 Personen untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass insbesondere das Narrativ, wonach einkommensschwache Haushalte überproportional belastet werden, klimapopulistische Haltungen verstärkt und die Zufriedenheit mit Demokratie senkt. Dies gilt vor allem unter Frauen und in einkommensschwachen, ostdeutschen und konservativen Wähler*innengruppen. Das Narrativ, wonach Unternehmen keine Verantwortung übernehmen, verstärkt vor allem unter Männern und in ostdeutschen und linken Wähler*innengruppen klimapopulistische Einstellungen. Das Narrativ, wonach Klimapolitik die deutsche Volkswirtschaft belastet, wirkt vor allem in der rechten Wählerschaft. Narrative entfalten sich damit im Kontext individueller Lebenslagen und politischer Vorerfahrungen. Eine sozial ausgewogene und transparent kommunizierte Klimapolitik kann die gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz für Klimapolitik stärken und klimapopulistischer Vereinnahmung entgegenwirken.

Das Jahr 2020 war durch eine sprunghafte Zunahme der Teilnahme von Privatpersonen am Aktienmarkt gekennzeichnet. Parallel waren auch deutlich mehr Erwerbstätige im Homeoffice. Tatsächlich ist die Nutzung von Homeoffice eine robuste Bestimmungsgröße für Aktienbesitz und erklärt einen Teil des Anstiegs im Jahr 2020. Vom Homeoffice profitieren in dieser Hinsicht vor allem Personen ohne Kinder im Haushalt. Ferner kommt es gerade auch bei einkommensschwächeren Personen im Homeoffice zu einem höheren Anteil von Aktienbesitz. Das stärker genutzte Homeoffice hat damit auch komplexe verteilungspolitische Folgen. Tendenziell verbreitert es die Basis des Aktienbesitzes durch – im weiteren Sinn – sinkende Kosten der Teilnahme am Aktienmarkt. Natürlich sollte die Wirtschaftspolitik nicht Homeoffice verordnen, um den Aktienbesitz zu steigern, aber sie kann den Einstieg in den Aktienmarkt auf andere Weise erleichtern, insbesondere durch bessere finanzielle Bildung.