Vasilopoulou, Sofia orcid.org/0000-0002-0943-4433 and Talving, Liisa (2020) Poor versus rich countries: A gap in public attitudes towards fiscal solidarity in the EU. West European Politics. pp. 919-943. ISSN 0140-2382
Abstract
Existing research has primarily focused on the role of utility and identity in shaping individuals’ European Union (EU) preferences. This article argues that macroeconomic context is a crucial predictor of attitudes towards transnational financial assistance, which has been omitted from previous analyses. Using data from the 2014 European Election Studies (EES) Voter Study for 28 EU member states, this article demonstrates that citizens living in poorer EU countries are less willing to support fiscal solidarity than their counterparts in more affluent countries. Country affluence serves as a heuristic, moderating the relationship between individual-level utility and identity considerations and willingness to show solidarity to member states with economic difficulties. When a country does not fare well economically, citizens’ views on providing help to others remain negative, irrespective of individual-level utilitarian and identity considerations. Our findings have implications for understanding the decision-making calculus underlying preference formation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Politics (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 16 Jul 2019 09:10 |
Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2025 00:34 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2019.1641781 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/01402382.2019.1641781 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148637 |
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Description: Poor versus rich countries a gap in public attitudes towards fiscal solidarity in the EU
Licence: CC-BY 2.5