A Study on the Policy Preferences for Public Spending on Education in Japan under Fiscal Constraints

: An Analysis Based on a Survey Experiment

Abstract

This study aims to understand the structure of support for government spending on education in Japan under different cost burdens. It identifies the policy priorities people perceive when they face fiscal trade-offs. In the analysis, respondents were randomly assigned different fiscal constraints and asked whether they supported the expansion of education policy. The results indicate that individuals are less supportive of increased spending on education when they face fiscal constraints. Among the different cost-burden conditions, tax increases and spending cuts in other policy areas are less popular than increases in public debt. Furthermore, variations in support based on socio-economic status and demographics become more pronounced when the cost burden is explicit. These findings suggest that social surveys ignoring fiscal constraints may overestimate actual preferences.