Replication Data for: Unlocking public support: How communication about program design affects public perception of IMF interventions

Does communication about International Monetary Fund (IMF) reform programs influence citizens’ support for their program and the IMF as an international organization? Do citizens’ views of the IMF and their reform programs depend upon how program content is presented, emphasizing tax increases, budget cuts, or social welfare packages? Given the limited attention to individual-level preferences, we undertake a survey experiment with non-elite respondents in a country with a current IMF program: Pakistan. We use an information treatment to probe whether changing information about the program’s content affects people’s support. While respondents reduce their program support when we emphasize specific adjustment costs like tax hikes and spending cuts, they increase their program support when we emphasize the continuity of social protection. Respondents’ opinions about the Fund as an institution are not impacted when they are presented with information about costly adjustments. Our findings suggest a reservoir of confidence in the IMF as an international institution capable of crafting the necessary economic reforms, even if citizens do not like some of the content of its program. We contribute to the literature on IMF program content and political communication strategies influencing public support for economic reforms and international organizations.