Welfare state attitudes and economic integration in the European Union, 1992–2002: a multilevel investigation across 24 countries

Abstract

This study continues earlier research efforts that investigated the impact of the European Union (EU) on welfare states by examining the relationship between the welfare state attitudes of citizens and the economic dimension of European integration. Two waves from the European and World Values Study (EVS/WVS) are combined with U CTAD data about EU trade. Multilevel analysis of this dataset including 67,346 individuals from the EU member states shows that there is a curvilinear relationship (a reversed U) between welfare state attitudes and economic integration in the EU.

Three Worlds of Welfare Chauvinism? How Welfare Regimes Affect Support for Distributing Welfare to Immigrants in Europe

“…Finally, we include the control variables female (male = 1; female = 2), because women are generally more inclined to support welfare arrangements than men are, and age (in years), as the elderly are more inclined to such support than the young (Koster 2010).…”

Globalization, socio-economic status and welfare chauvinism: European perspectives on attitudes toward the exclusion of immigrants

“…The internationalization of national economies has intensified competition among workers in different countries and different parts of the world (Alderson, 2004;Brady and Wallace, 2000;Scheve and Slaughter, 2004). Globalization brings new risks, new status insecurities and stiffer competition in the labor market (Spilerman, 2009: 76), triggering feelings of economic insecurity (Blossfeld et al, 2010;Kirby, 2010;Koster, 2010;Wood, 1995). It is here that group conflict theory suggests prejudice and hostility toward foreigners and immigrants occur through (real or perceived) group competition for scarce and valued social resources (e.g.…”

Welfare state values in the European Union, 2002–2008. A multilevel investigation of formal institutions and individual attitudes

“…Nevertheless, whether these values are also shared and supported by the public received little attention to date. Clearly, this is not to argue that there is no knowledge about the opinions and behaviour of EU citizens and their relation with European integration available at all (see, for example , Finseraas 2009;Koster 2010;Kumlin 2009;Mau 2005), but it is to say that this information has not explicitly been interpreted as support for values underlying EU welfare states. What is more, the existing literature does not inform us about whether and how these attitudes of EU citizens are F. Koster and M.-E. Kaminska: Welfare state values in the European Union 901 related to welfare state institutions at the national level.…”