## Support for Economic Reforms Hinges on Communication, Engagement, and Trust

_IMF Blog, October 16, 2024_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Support for Economic Reforms Hinges on Communication, Engagement, and Trust](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2024/10/16/support-for-economic-reforms-hinges-on-communication-engagement-and-trust)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Silvia Albrizio, Bertrand Gruss, Yu Shi
- Published: October 16, 2024

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### Overview
- Authors: Silvia Albrizio, Bertrand Gruss, Yu Shi
- Date: October 16, 2024
- Core message: Effective communication, civic engagement, and earning the public's trust are the keys to advance pro-growth reforms. The analysis draws on new work highlighted in Chapter 3 of the October 2024 World Economic Outlook, “Understanding the Social Acceptability of Structural Reforms.”

### Context: why reforms are urgent
- The global economy is stuck in a low-growth gear due to aging populations, weak business investment, and structural frictions that prevent capital and labor from flowing to where they can be most productive.
- Demographic pressures and the green and digital transitions require significant investment and resource reallocation across companies and industries.
- Many countries share needs to:
  - ease market entry for new businesses,
  - foster competition in the provision of goods and services,
  - encourage workers to stay in the labor force,
  - better integrate immigrant workers.

### Understanding social resistance
- Survey scope: more than 12,000 people across six representative countries.
- Key finding on determinants:
  - Personal beliefs, perceptions and other behavioral factors account for about 80 percent of support for reforms.
  - Knowledge and misperceptions about the need for reform and the effects of policies are the primary predictors of differences in policy support.
  - Perceptions of distribution and fairness matter: opponents often worry about impacts on their communities and the most vulnerable, not only on themselves (example: fears that increased private sector roles in electricity and telecommunications would make services less affordable and reduce access for the poorest).
  - Lack of trust fuels opposition: many who oppose reforms cite general distrust of the parties involved and doubts about the government’s ability to implement changes and mitigate harms.

### Strategies and tools to boost support
- Overarching approach: a multi-faceted strategy combining Information, Engagement, Mitigation, and Trust.

- Information
  - Effective communication goes beyond advertising reforms: policymakers must convincingly explain the need for change, the expected effects, and how they might be achieved.
  - Providing clear and nonpartisan information that corrects misperceptions significantly increases public support.
  - Evidence: information led to more than 40 percent of those who were opposed to migrant integration policies in our survey to change their mind.

- Engagement
  - Dialogue should be two-way: allowing people to help shape policies and voice concerns fosters community ownership and increases likelihood of support.

- Mitigation
  - Acknowledge reforms may hurt some groups and address concerns with tailored mitigating measures.
  - Mitigations (e.g., temporary cash support, training programs) should be informed by two-way dialogues between officials and citizens.

- Trust
  - Trust underpins the other pillars: effective communication requires confidence in both the message and the messenger.
  - Engagement should start early, in the policy design stage.
  - Reform design mechanisms should reassure the public that the government will deliver on mitigating commitments when reforms are done.
  - Establishing credible and independent government bodies to conduct and validate policy analysis can help.
  - First-generation reforms to address corruption and improve governance are fundamental to restoring faith in institutions.

- Practical tools to implement the strategy
  - Public forums, pilot programs, and opinion surveys to inform two-way dialogue.
  - Large-scale surveys, focus groups, and participatory tools to identify concerns, craft mitigations, and build consensus.
  - New civic technologies, such as digital community engagement platforms, to broaden citizen participation.

### Policy implications and institutional application
- Effective reform design requires thorough consultation, communication, and mitigation to compensate those who might be hurt.
- Better tools to encourage participation will help people understand proposals and build the public trust needed to carry out vital economic reforms.
- These principles should be reflected in the IMF’s periodic reviews of its program, surveillance, and capacity development initiatives.

*Source: Silvia Albrizio, Bertrand Gruss, Yu Shi, “Support for Economic Reforms Hinges on Communication, Engagement, and Trust,” October 16, 2024; based on Chapter 3 of the October 2024 World Economic Outlook, “Understanding the Social Acceptability of Structural Reforms.”*

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## References

- [Understanding the Social Acceptability of Structural Reforms](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2024/10/22/world-economic-outlook-october-2024?cid=bl-com-AM2024-WEOEA2024002)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2024/10/16/support-for-economic-reforms-hinges-on-communication-engagement-and-trust_