The role of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits in driving welfare state attitudes has received scant attention in social policy research. Yet neuroticism in particular – a disposition to stress, worry and get nervous easily – is theoretically likely to be an important driver of welfare...

When faced with the necessity of reforming welfare states in ageing societies, politicians tend to demand more solidarity between generations because they assume that reforms require sacrifices from older people. Political economy models, however, do not investigate such a mechanism of...

Households and welfare states both serve as vehicles of lifecycle financing through intergenerational transfers. Working-age people are net contributors, children and the elderly are net beneficiaries. However, there is a marked asymmetry in the socialization of intergenerational transfers....

We explore the dimensionality of attitudes towards the welfare state among university students in eight countries representing four worlds of welfare - liberal, radical, conservative and social-democratic. We use new data from cross-nationally comparable 25-item questionnaires to derive a...

Households and social policies both serve as vehicles of lifecycle financing through intergenerational transfers, with working-age people as net contributors and children and the elderly as beneficiaries. However, there is a marked socialization asymmetry. Working-age people pay taxes and social...

Over the past few decades, all affluent democracies have been coping with two major new trends: population aging, and new social risks resulting from de-industrialization. How have these trends, and their timing, affected welfare spending within and between countries? We investigate up to 21...