Public support for the economic governance of the euro zone: empirical evidence from the debt crisis

URL des Documents de travail : http://ces.univ-paris1.fr/cesdp/cesdp2015.htmlDocuments de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2015.63 - ISSN : 1955-611XUsing a unique database combining Eurobarometer surveys from 2004 to 2014 trust is used as a proxy for the value people give to the EU response to the crisis. The focus is on the euro zone and the sovereign debt crisis which started in November 2009. Our empirical analysis supports the theory that citizens blame the EU for the poor macroeconomic performances in the euro area. We rely on a bivariate probit model to document the relationship between national government trust and EU trust. We find that domestic macroeconomic conditions influence both level of government. However, a deeper analysis suggests that the proximity with the average Euro Zone economic performances increases trust in the European Union