Poor versus rich countries: a gap in public attitudes towards fiscal solidarity in the EU

Sofia Vasilopoulou,Liisa Talving

doi:10.1080/01402382.2019.1641781

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.

Highlights

Given that resources are scarce in poorer European Union (EU) member states, we suggest that people may oppose offering financial assistance to another country irrespective of their evaluations of the economy and their socioeconomic placement
Descriptive data show that on average 45% of respondents disagreed that in times of crisis it is desirable for their country to give financial help to EU member states in economic and financial difficulties; 50.8% agreed with the statement and 4.2% did not take a position
Patterns of country variation diverge between the two dependent variables as well, with levels of overall Euroscepticism being highest in Britain and lowest in Estonia

Summary

Introduction

Applying these perspectives to the context of attitudes towards transnational financial assistance, we expect that citizens who negatively evaluate their national economy and those with low levels of human capital will oppose the policy. Domestic economic conditions may act as a ‘buffer’ diluting the effect of identity on support for providing financial assistance to the EU’s struggling economies (Garry and Tilley 2009; Kuhn and Stoeckel 2014).

Results

Conclusion