Public Demand for Extraterritorial Environmental and Social Public Goods Provision

Abstract Vastly increased transnational business activity in recent decades has been accompanied by controversy over how to cope with its social and environmental impacts. The most prominent policy response thus far consists of international guidelines. We investigate what extent why citizens a high-income country are willing restrain companies improve conditions other countries. Exploiting real-world referendum Switzerland, we use choice vignette experiments representative sample voters ( N = 3,010) study public demand for such regulation. Our results show that prefer strict unilateral rules (with substantial variation preferences general concern) while correctly assessing their consequences. Moreover, exposure norms increases These findings highlight democratic accountability can be mechanism motivates states contribute collective goods even if not economic interest awareness relevant among enhance this mechanism.