Paper presented at at AMD Workshop “Doing Business in Space” in Turin

A few weeks ago, Daniel Vrankar participated in the AMD Workshop “Doing Business in Space” at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. The workshop brought together scholars to discuss economic and strategic dimensions of the space sector.

As part of the program, Daniel Vrankar presented a joint working paper with Prof. Lars Hornuf titled "Space Funding and Geopolitical Competition: How Information Shapes Public Support." The paper addresses a pressing policy issue: the influence of geopolitical rhetoric on citizens’ willingness to fund space activities. The research investigates how so-called geopolitically comparative rhetoric, a form of argument where politicians cite adversaries’ space investments to justify domestic spending, influences public opinion.

The key finding is that this type of rhetoric fails to boost support for space funding; in fact, it makes citizens less inclined to support increased public investment when they learn how much a geopolitical rival is spending. These findings challenge political messaging and suggest that such rhetoric could backfire, potentially increasing geopolitical tensions and xenophobia without bolstering public support.

Another insight from the paper: citizens generally show no strong preference between funding government space agencies or private New Space firms. However, there is one major exception—the United States. Here, the public is 26 percentage points less likely to support funding for private space companies compared to NASA.

A warm thank you to the workshop organizers Elettra D’Amico, Giuseppe Scellato, and Federico Caviggioli for an inspiring event.

The paper can be downloaded here.

© Vrankar