Public Opinion on Sanctions Compliance and Evasion: Experimental Evidence from the 2022–23 Russia Sanctions

Abstract

How does the public assess corporate behavior regarding economic sanctions? Private companies play a critical role in making sanctions work—circumventing, complying, or limiting their business beyond what is legally required. We theorize that stigma and information cues make citizens likely to support domestic firms withdrawing from a foreign market and disapprove of companies continuing business. We ran two pre-registered survey experiments about the 2022 Russia sanctions in Germany. Germans disapprove of firms remaining, even when not violating sanctions regulations. Firms continuing legal business cannot justify their actions in a way that mitigates negative public perception. Three replications establish generalizability.