European Values Survey Research Articles

Dynamic cultures, dynamic responses: The impact on corporate cash holdings amid uncertainty

This study investigates the changes in national culture, economic uncertainty, and their joint effects on corporate cash holdings across 58 countries over the period 2004 to 2020. The study also delves into the importance of national culture in amplifying the impact of economic uncertainty in influencing corporate cash holdings. Drawing on three national cultural dimensions, trust-distrust, collectivism-individualism, and duty-joy orientation-based on the European Value Survey (EVS) and World Value Survey (WVS), we employ a panel data model with a fixed effect approach and incorporate the lag of the independent variable to mitigate potential endogeneity issues. Our findings show that transitions in national culture from collectivism to individualism do not significantly decrease corporate cash holdings. Moreover, a cultural shift from distrust to trust does not result in a decrease in corporate cash holdings. Conversely, a move towards a short-term orientation motivates firms to reduce their cash holdings. The interaction between economic uncertainty and collectivism and individualism tends to increase corporate cash holdings. However, there is no difference in the impacts of the three cultural dimensions for financially constrained and unconstrained firms on corporate cash holdings. This study offers significant practical implications, particularly for policymakers in countries where they have strong collectivistic national culture, which may amplify the effects of economic uncertainty.

Low Income, Ill-being, and Gender Inequality: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gendered Risk of Suffering Among the Poor

Scholars have long investigated the positive link between income and well-being, including its gender difference. However, little is known about (1) how low income is linked to ill-being among women and men; and (2) how their association varies depending on societal-level gender (in)equality. Filling this knowledge gap is crucial not only for scholarship but for social policy to tackle income-based disparities of ill-being. In this study, using the European Social Survey and the joint European Values Study-World Values Survey data, we conduct country-specific regressions and cross-national multilevel analyses to examine the relationship between low income, subjective ill-being (SIB), and macro-level gender parity. We first confirm that low-income individuals, regardless of gender, are more likely than their affluent counterparts to suffer from SIB in many countries. This indicates the applicability of implications derived from conventional approaches focused on the positive association between higher income and better well-being to the studies on low income and SIB. Nevertheless, the SIB risk significantly differs depending on the degree of gender inequality in that (1) both women and men face a higher likelihood of SIB in gender-inegalitarian societies; and importantly, (2) the psychological penalty for the poor is intensified under such gendered circumstances, especially among men. These results suggest that gender inequality not merely induces women’s ill-being but punishes low-income men possibly by exacerbating pressure as a breadwinner and imposing stigmas when they cannot meet gendered social expectations.

Wealth inequality, income inequality, and subjective well-being: A cross-country study

Abstract There are conflicting theories about whether individuals like or dislike inequality, or in other words, whether living in an unequal country increases or decreases their subjective well-being. Empirical literature has so far focused on income inequality and has not yet reached a consensus. In the present paper, we focus on wealth inequality, an aspect that has so far been overlooked in the happiness literature. The aim of the present paper is to systematically investigate the wealth inequality–happiness relationship and compare the results to the income inequality–happiness association. Furthermore, we focus on different parts of income or wealth distribution, rather than using a single inequality measure. We use data from the integrated World Values Surveys and European Values Surveys for over 50 countries, matched with the World Inequality Database data over the years 1981–2020. Following our analyses, we find some evidence supporting the “tunnel effect” theory: individuals are happier with increases in the top 10% and top 1% shares of wealth and less happy with increases in the middle 40% share of wealth, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In high-income countries, increasing the bottom 50% share of wealth increases individuals’ life satisfaction, suggesting that they favor redistribution.

The Value of Leisure: Significance and Evolution

In recent decades, Spanish society has evolved, conditioned especially by the changing global environment of which it is a part. One of the areas of people's lives in which these transformations can be most clearly seen is that of leisure, which has given rise to a certain evolution in the value given to it by citizens, as well as in the relevance that leisure lifestyles are progressively acquiring. This article presents the results of the fifth European Leisure Values Survey applied to Spain. In the case of Spain, the effective sample size is 1,200 persons. The random samples provide a complete coverage of the target population (persons aged 18 and over residing in private households, irrespective of nationality or language). The results show how leisure currently occupies a central space in the cultural, social and economic reality of our environment.

Political Activism and Other Predictors of Immigration-Status-Based Prejudice: Secondary Data Analysis of the World Values Survey

Political activism is motivated by the desire for equity in the distribution of social values, raising curiosity about how activism plays out in matters of prejudicial sentiments. Therefore, this work was designed to examine the prediction of immigration-status-based prejudice by activism in a cross-national data context. The data used are secondary data from Wave 7 of the 2017-2021 World Values Survey (N=76 897) and the 2017-2020 European Values Survey (N=58 103), which were conducted in 81 different countries. Binary logistic regression featuring the Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to analyze data. Results show that 21.7% of respondents were prejudiced against immigrants while the mean±SD of political activism was 6.46±2.26 (min.=4, max.=12). Politically active respondents were significantly less likely to have prejudice against immigrants (AOR=0.861; 95% CI=0.855, 0.866; p

Analysis of the relationship between religion, abortion, and assisted reproductive technology: Insights into cross-national public opinion

With advancement in reproductive technologies, public opinion regarding these procedures varies considerably across the world. While prominent public debates have focused on abortion, we know less about the factors shaping feelings regarding Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). Both procedures challenge the idea that human life starts with conception – with the fertilization of an embryo. Using European Values Survey data and multilevel modeling, we compare how religion and other personal and country-level factors shape disapproval toward abortion and ART. Conservative Protestants and people who are more engaged with their religion and live in a more religious country are more likely to disapprove of abortion and ART. More supportive polices and attitudes regarding ART, but not abortion, are correlated. Additionally, economic development moderates the relationship between personal religiosity and abortion, but not ART. This finding provides important insight into why abortion has remained such a controversial issue, even in richer nations.

THE HIGH-TECH ELITE? ASSESSING VALUE PRIORITIES OF TECHIES USING THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL SURVEY 2012-2020

Using data from the European Value Survey 2012-2020 and Schwartz’s theory of basic values, this paper aims to map the value priorities of people working in tech compared to the general population, understand to what extent those value priorities differ from value priorities of other occupational elites, and how they vary among techies, focusing particularly on developers as a sub-group. Our preliminary findings suggest that compared to the general population, techies tend to prioritize openness to change and to value self enhancement. We also demonstrate that when viewed as a single group, the overall makeup of values of the techies is similar to that of other occupational elites. Yet, the dynamics between individual values among the techies differ from those of other occupational elites and when we separate Developers from other ICT specialists, the Developers appear more extreme in their tendency to negatively value conservation and positively value self-enhancement. Our preliminary results offer potential takeaways for research, policy, and education.

Darbo ir laisvalaikio pusiausvyros paieškos iš kartų kaitos Lietuvos visuomenėje perspektyvos

Work and leisure are interlinked and mutually determining spheres of human life, both of which are socially constructed concepts that depend on a variety of cultural, social and economic factors. In contemporary society, the balance between work and leisure is particularly relevant in the light of various social, economic and technological changes, such as the intensification of work, the constant accessibility of workers to smart communication devices, the blurring of the boundaries between professional and private time, the introduction of flexible forms of work organisation, etc. The pursuit of work-life balance is therefore even becoming a kind of cultural value imperative aimed at ensuring individual and societal well-being. Using empirical data from the European Values Survey spanning almost three decades (1990-2017), this paper analyses the dynamics of value orientations related to work and leisure in Lithuania, in order to see how the importance of these areas of life and the perception of their relationship to each other is changing in different groups of the population, and how this is related to the change of generations. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, nonparametric covariance analysis and multiple group comparison test and revealed significant differences in value attitudes related to work and leisure and their interrelationship in different social generations in Lithuania, suggesting that, while the importance of work itself has remained essentially unchanged, we are witnessing a profound cultural change, manifested as a broadening of the spectrum of expectations related to work and a search for a better work-life balance.

Is the Positive Effect of Education on Ethnic Tolerance a Method Artifact? A Multifactorial Survey Experiment on Social Desirability Bias in Sweden

Abstract Educated individuals are believed to be more tolerant towards ethnic minorities—a finding widely inferred from standard survey items. We propose a new approach that helps mitigate the risk of socially desirability bias (SDB), using a multifactorial survey experiment with name-based vignette dimensions. The experiment is strategically inserted into a question about a social dilemma not related to ethnicity. By embedding our experiment into an established survey—the Swedish part of the European Values Survey—we show that individuals with a high level of education are more tolerant towards ethnic minorities, even under a lower risk of SDB. The study strengthens findings in prior research and supports the hypothesis that education can further ethnic tolerance.

From attitudes to social networks: National gender-role attitudes and gender differences in late-life social relationships

Studies often find gender differences in social networks in later life, but are these findings universal, or do they differ in various cultural contexts? To address this research gap, the current study examines the association between gender differences in social relationships and country-level gender-role attitudes. We combined data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) of individuals aged 50 years and older with country-level data on gender-role attitudes from the European Values Survey (EVS) for 15 European countries. We estimated a series of multivariate hierarchical regression models that predicted the size of the personal social network, its emotional closeness, and the proportion of the spouse, children, and friends in the network. The results indicated gender differences in social network characteristics. Women reported larger social networks and were more likely to have larger proportions of children and friends but smaller proportions of the spouse in their social networks. The magnitude of gender differences was associated with country-level gender-role attitudes. In countries with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes, women had larger networks with a larger proportion of friends compared to men. In countries with more traditional gender-role attitudes, women had larger proportions of their children and spouse in their social networks and had emotionally closer networks. Our findings suggest that the societal context and opportunity structures for social interactions play an important role in shaping the structure of women’s and men’s social relationships in later life.

A Generalized Ordered Logit Model to Accommodate Multiple Rating Scales

Rating scales are ubiquitous in the social sciences, yet may present practical difficulties when response formats change over time or vary across surveys. To allow researchers to pool rating data across alternative question formats, the article provides a generalization of the ordered logit model that accommodates multiple scale formats in the measurement of a single rating construct. The resulting multiscale ordered logit model shares the interpretation as well as the proportional odds (or parallel lines) assumption with the standard ordered logit model. A further extension to relax the proportional odds assumption in the multiscale context is proposed, and the substitution of the logit with other convenient link functions is equally straightforward. The utility of the model is illustrated from an empirical analysis of the determinants of respondents’ confidence in democratic institutions that combines data from the European Social Survey, the General Social Survey, and the European and World Values Survey series.

Crafting Social Integration? Welfare State and Volunteering Across Social Groups and Policy Areas in 23 European Countries

The beneficial role of voluntary work for social integration makes it an important aspect of social cohesion. Thus, there is broad interest in understanding the individual and contextual foundations of volunteering. With regard to the latter, a particular focus is on the role of policies and institutions of the welfare state. They might set incentives for civic engagement and create new scope for voluntary work (crowding-in thesis), but they might also make it redundant (crowding-out thesis). We follow the argument that generous welfare states enable volunteering and assume that two mechanisms are at work. First, they establish a general culture of helping and caring for others in a society (cultural mechanism). Second, they provide those who benefit or potentially benefit from welfare state policies with resources and the abilities to engage in volunteering (resource mechanism). Thus, welfare benefits in specific areas of the welfare state are expected to increase volunteering among members of targeted groups (e.g., the elderly if pensions are high). To test these arguments, our empirical analysis combines country-level data of area-specific welfare benefits with survey data of around 29,000 respondents from 23 countries included in the most recent European Value Survey 2017/2018. We estimate hierarchical regression models with cross-level interactions to test whether particular groups of society are activated by general and area-specific welfare programs to become volunteers. Our findings show that volunteering is generally higher in more generous welfare states, lending support to the crowding-in thesis. Area- and group-specific analyses indicate that the resource mechanism works for some groups but not for all. Pension welfare strengthens volunteering among the retired and the elderly. Unemployment welfare reinforces volunteering among the less educated, but these results are slightly less robust, and we do not find support for higher levels of volunteering among the actually targeted group of unemployed persons.

THE FAMILY WITHIN THE VALUE SYSTEM AND FAMILY VALUES IN THE CONTEXT OF LATVIA TODAY: INSIGHTS FROM THE EUROPEAN VALUES SURVEY

The formation of a person's values and mindset shift is a process that takes place throughout a person's life, but views on basic values are instilled in the family from early childhood and their formation continues during the socialisation process at school and in society. The family plays a primary role in the transmission of values as important elements of an individual's character, the teaching of which largely determines the individual's life path. Just as family structures have changed over time and vary from culture to culture, so too have attitudes towards the family, its relationship to society and its relative value in the social order. This paper analyses the place of the family as a value in the overall value system of the individual and identifies the value beliefs that currently prevail within the family itself. The main research questions to be answered are: (1) are there differences in views – and what are these differences – on the value of the family among different groups in Latvian society; (2) what values are transferred in the family and passed down to children? The analysis of the problem is based on Latvian data from the fifth phase of the European Values Survey (EVS) in 2021 (n=1335).

Patterns of change in the justifiability of euthanasia across OECD countries

IntroductionThe public's justifiability of euthanasia has increased as more countries have adopted laws permitting a range of end-of-life practices. Despite this trend, there is a dearth of longitudinal and comparative studies investigating attitudes toward euthanasia. Consequently, it remains unclear whether this rise in justifiability is a period-specific trend or generational change.MethodsWe analyzed data from the European and World Values Survey from 1981 to 2021 to examine period variations, between-cohort differences, and within-cohort changes across 35 affluent countries. This analysis was conducted using dynamic comparative multilevel regression and a comparative version of the cross-classified random effects regressions.ResultsOur descriptive results supported our hypotheses, indicating an increase in euthanasia's justifiability in virtually all surveyed countries, with both overall and within-cohort changes gravitating toward higher degrees of justifiability. Furthermore, newer periods and younger cohorts were found to be more permissive than their older counterparts. These consistent increases in the justifiability of euthanasia were verified by the multilevel models.DiscussionOur results were in line with modernization theory, observing a gradual change in attitudes between cohorts due to generational replacement. However, we also identified intra-cohort changes related to the processes of human development across various countries. Some robustness checks produced ambiguous results in distinguishing period and cohort effects, yet the combination of these components aligns with substantive theory.ConclusionOur findings indicate a more complex pattern of change than predicted by the impressionable years model, a leading approach in political socialization research. This study contributes significantly to our understanding of evolving attitudes toward euthanasia, bridging the gap in longitudinal and comparative studies on the subject.

On Rule of Law, Civic Virtues, Trust, and Happiness

AbstractIn literature, there is a long and ongoing dispute over whether free market institutions encourage or discourage civic virtues. On the one hand, the so-called doux commerce thesis states that free market institutions have a favorable influence on civic virtues, such as honesty, respect for private property, and fair dealings. This idea goes back to, amongst others, Adam Smith who famously argued that where commerce is introduced, people are more faithful to their word. Smith also believed that civic virtues foster human happiness. The policy implication would be that free market institutions increase happiness by stimulating civic virtues. On the other hand, the so-called self-destruction thesis states that free market institutions are inimical to the civic virtues, which would mean that free markets decrease human happiness by crowding out civic virtues. Although the debate on free market institutions and civic virtues is very relevant to policy makers, empirical evidence on these opposing propositions is still scarce. In this paper we test both relationships on a sample of 212,431 individuals from 80 countries by using data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey over the 1990–2020 period. We focus on one important dimension of free market institutions: rule of law. We find that civic virtues are positively related to rule of law and that happiness increases with civic virtues. In addition, civic virtues indirectly increase happiness by stimulating trust. In addition, trust is directly positively related to rule of law, indicating that both formal institutions (rule of law) and informal institutions (civic virtues) affect trust. An analysis of all the effects of rule of law on happiness shows, however, that the indirect effects through civic virtues and trust are of relatively minor importance in comparison to its total effect.

What is the geography of trust? The urban-rural trust gap in global perspective

What is the geography of political trust? Influential studies point to a growing urban-rural cleavage between low-trust authoritarian populists in rural areas and higher-trust liberal pluralists in densely populated urban areas. We use data from the World Values Survey and European Values Survey, covering nearly 100 countries, to test whether development has a moderating effect on the urban-rural divide in political trust. Our results reveal that at high levels of development, there are similar levels of trust in government between people living in urban and rural areas, while at low levels of development we find higher levels of trust for rural populations compared to those residing in urban areas. These findings add an important caveat to the standard account of the ‘geography of discontent’ in advanced industrial democracies, while suggesting the need for further investigation of the trust gap in the developing world and its implications. How trust is spatially distributed matters for how polities are governed, and is consequential for electoral behaviour, trends and outcomes.

Till debt does us apart: Cross-country evidence on the relationship between microfinance prevalence and social distrust.

Economic interventions have social consequences. In this paper, we explore one such relationship, between microfinance intensity and social distrust levels reported by the low-income people. We find a significant association between microfinance intensity in a country and distrust among the poor as well as ultra-poor in cross-section using World Values Survey & European Values Survey (WVS-EVS) Wave 7 (2017-2022). We supplement these findings using empirical Bayes on a panel extending back from 7th to the 4th WVS wave (1999-2004). To deal with potential endogeneity, we run 2SLS as well as weak instruments-robust conditional instrumental variable tests and find evidence showing microfinance prevalence intensity affects distrust levels among the poor and ultra-poor households. We find no association between microfinance and distrust levels in the rich in any of the tests, potentially because the rich are not exposed to microfinance.

Modeling Spatial Heterogeneity and Historical Persistence: Nazi Concentration Camps and Contemporary Intolerance

A wealth of recent research in comparative politics examines how spatial variation in historical conditions shapes modern political outcomes. In an article in the American Political Science Review, Homola, Pereira, and Tavits argue that Germans who live nearer to former Nazi concentration camps are more likely to display out-group intolerance. Clarifying the conceptual foundations of posttreatment bias and reviewing the historical record on postwar state creation in Germany, we argue that state-level differences confound the relationship between distance to camps and out-group intolerance. Using publicly available European Values Survey data and electoral results from 2017, we find no consistent evidence that distance to camps is related to contemporary values. Our findings have implications for literatures on historical persistence, causal inference with spatial data, Holocaust studies, and outgroup tolerance.

Abortion Rights Attitudes in Europe: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, or Pro-Nation?

Abstract Despite modernization in women’s public roles, reproductive rights attitudes and policies are becoming more restrictive in some societies. While existing literature depicts abortion opinion as a clash of feminist pro-choice vs. religious pro-life frames, feminist analysis suggests that nationalism may influence reproductive attitudes. Yet no cross-national research has empirically examined the relationship between ethnonationalist sentiments and abortion attitudes. We use the 2017 European Values Survey to analyze how ethnonationalist attitudes are associated with abortion approval in thirty European countries. We find that strong ethnonational identity and distrust of foreigners are positively correlated with individuals’ disapproval of abortion. Counterintuitively, this association between abortion attitudes and ethnonationalism is stronger among less religious and more liberal individuals—and in more “modernized” European countries. Our findings contribute a new factor to the cross-national abortion opinion literature and an empirical demonstration of feminist theory with relevance for reproductive rights.

The geography of autocracy. Regime preferences along the rural-urban divide in 32 countries

ABSTRACT There is growing concern about a political divide between urban and rural places. Against this background, we evaluate the geography of regime preferences regarding a key aspect of democratic support, e.g. attitudes towards democracy and its authoritarian alternatives. We would like to find out whether possible rural-urban differences are due to different socio-economic situations, differing values or to the degree of political discontent of urbanites and rural dwellers. Using recent European Values Survey data from 32 European countries and over 30,000 respondents from 2017 to 2020, we show that rural residents are more supportive of authoritarian regimes than urban dwellers are. Moreover, our path analyses indicate that socio-economic and cultural differences between urbanites and ruralites are particularly crucial, while the political mechanisms cannot explain the spatial divide of regime preferences.