Evaluation of consumer confidence and spending behaviour in response to politicians’ legislative actions and communication in extreme contexts

Project no.: S-MIP-25-94

Project funding: Research Council of Lithuania, Researcher Groups projects

Project description:

This project investigates how political inconsistency within legislative bodies affects consumer confidence and spending behavior in Lithuania, particularly in extreme contexts. In an era of increasing institutional distrust and political volatility, understanding the economic consequences of legislative behavior is crucial for economic stability. Our research addresses a critical knowledge gap by connecting microlevel political signals (voting patterns of individual legislators) with consumer economic behavior. While existing research has documented how major geopolitical events impact markets, the mechanisms through which day-to-day legislative inconsistency affects consumer decision-making remain poorly understood. We employ a multi-method approach integrating cutting-edge computational techniques with traditional social science methods. The project’s findings will have significant implications for multiple stakeholders. For policymakers, our research will quantify the economic costs of political inconsistency, potentially encouraging more stable governance approaches. For businesses, our insights will help anticipate consumer behavior during periods of political uncertainty. For citizens, our enhanced Seimo Detektorius platform will provide improved tools for monitoring representatives’ consistency, contributing to democratic transparency.

Principal investigator: Dalius Misiūnas

Project research team: Viltė Auruškevičienė, Vincentas Vobolevičius, Ali B. Mahmoud, Eimantė Survilaitė

Project duration: 2025 11 20 – 2028 11 19

Project coordinator: ISM University of Management and Economics