Voting for Change: Calculation, Community and Euro Referendums
Posted: 17 Mar 2008
Abstract
Referendum votes on adoption of the euro in Denmark (2000) and Sweden (2003) provide unprecedented natural experiments through which to study the political economy of money. Using exit polling data and multinomial logit statistical models that allow us to separate preferences for the euro from preferences for the European Union (EU), we test economic "calculation" and political "community" as determinants of individual-level preferences over adoption of the euro. We find that "calculation" operates most clearly where, as in Sweden, the choice of a fixed versus a floating exchange rate regime is at stake, while "community" exerts strong effects across the two cases.
Keywords: political economy, public opinion, referendums, European Union, exchange rates
JEL Classification: D72, E42, F33
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