Does education affect opinions on economic inequality? A joint mean and dispersion analysis

Abstract

Research on public opinion on economic inequality mainly focuses on the legitimation of inequalities and possible discrepancies between public opinion on fair economic inequality and factual income distributions. However, what has been neglected is the extent to which individual or country characteristics affect deviations from average public opinion. To account for these deviations, we establish a joint multi-level mean-dispersion model and scrutinize the impact of educational systems as a hitherto neglected factor that may affect dispersion in opinion distributions. Besides an individual's level of education and welfare state characteristics, we show that vocational orientation of educational systems, too, has a substantial impact. This institutional feature appears to reduce the extent to which individual opinions deviate from average public opinion on the fairness of economic inequalities.

Vocational and Academic Education and Political Engagement: The Importance of the Educational Institutional Structure

“…It is mostly the tracking of the educational system, and not its vocational orientation, that is associated with larger gaps between vocational and academic/general education. This finding leads to a conclusion similar to earlier studies that found that early tracking is harmful to equality whereas vocational orientation is not (Brunello and Checchi 2007;Koçer and Van de Werfhorst 2012). For political outcomes we corroborated this finding.…”

The challenge of globalisation: a world-wide investigation of public attitudes on individual vs. government responsibility

“…This is expected since individuals with high income and education do not have the same need for social services as people with a lower socioeconomic status have (Koçer and van de Wefhorst, 2012).…”

Envy of the rich is one reason that Americans favor reducing income inequality

“…Decades of research on attitudes towards earnings and income inequality have diligently sought self-interest effects as represented by impacts of socioeconomic position, but found rather weak effects (Austen 1999, Crepaz 2016, Galland, Lemel and Frénod 2013, Gijsberts 2002, Hadler 2005, Kelley and Evans 1993, Kelley and Evans 2009, Kocer and Werfhorst 2012, Kulin and Svallfors 2013, Linos and West 2003, Shamon and Duelmer 2014, Smith and Mateju 2012, although there is support in experimental research, at least when the source of the inequality is not specified (Sznycer et al 2017). The many variables that have been explored under the rubric of self-interest include education, occupational status, income, and the like, sometimes called "pocketbook" or "hip pocket" effects (ably summarized in Owens and Pedulla 2014 and in Fernandez and Jaime-Castillo 2018).…”

“…Potential stratification effects on attitudes towards income inequality are, of course, not limited to self-interest, but could also reflect subcultural differences and influences of social position and reference groups on societal perceptions. Prior research (Austen 1999, Centola 2015, Evans and Kelley 2018b, Galland, Lemel and Frénod 2013, Gijsberts 2002, Hadler 2005, Kelley and Evans 1993, Kelley and Evans 2009, Kocer and Werfhorst 2012, Kolczynska and Merry 2016, Kulin and Svallfors 2013, Shamon and Duelmer 2014, Smith and Mateju 2012, directs our attention (1) to primary socialization influences especially including parents' education, parents' occupation, respondent's current perception of parents' social hierarchical position while respondent was growing up, and religiosity in the family of origin; (2) demographic influence of age and gender; and…”