Perceived Welfare Deservingness of the Unemployed in Eastern versus Western Europe: Similar Levels but Different Degrees of Polarization?

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate whether the communist legacy and economic and institutional differences between Eastern and Western European countries also translate into substantial differences in the perceived welfare deservingness of unemployed people in the two parts of the continent. Using European Social Survey data, we find that the Eastern Europeans are clearly more divided in their solidarity with the unemployed. However, contextual factors have a limited effect on the levels of perceived deservingness: these are slightly higher in Western Europe, but the difference becomes insignificant once we control for population composition.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/TPA6U.

Notes

1. A similar argument suggests that the perceived deservingness of the unemployed would especially be lower among other groups of benefit claimants, such as disabled workers and pensioners, since in times of high unemployment they might fear their benefits could come under pressure as a result of the increased burden. (With regard to this “benefit competition” argument, see Golding and Middleton 1982; Jeene, Van Oorschot, and Uunk 2013.)

2. In a few countries, part of the survey was conducted in 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) grant # IRI I001519N.