High-skilled outsiders? Labor market vulnerability, education and welfare state preferences

Abstract

Recent research has established that employment risk shapes social policy preferences. However, risk is often conceptualized as an alternative measure of the socio-economic status. We show that employment risk and socio-economic status are distinct, crosscutting determinants of social policy preferences. More specifically, we analyze the policy preferences of high-skilled labor market outsiders as a cross-pressured group. We first establish that labor market vulnerability has spread well into the more highly educated segments of the population. We then show that the effect of labor market vulnerability on social policy preferences even increases with higher educational attainment. We conclude that that labor market risk and educational status are not interchangeable and that the high skilled are particularly sensitive to the experience of labor market risk. Thereby, our findings point to a potential cross-class alliance between more highly and lower skilled vulnerable individuals in support of a redistributive and activating welfare state. Thus, they have far-reaching implications for our understanding of both the politicization of insider/outsider divides and the politics of welfare support.JEL Classification: 12 P Unemployment benefits, J21 labor force and employment, size and structure, H53 government expenditures and welfare programs

Sharing the Risk? Households, Labor Market Vulnerability, and Social Policy Preferences in Western Europe

“…However, a necessary (though by far not sufficient) precondition for politicization is that people with dif-ferent degrees of labor market vulnerability actually differ in their political preferences. Recent studies have established evidence for exactly such differences (e.g., Burgoon and Dekker 2010;Häusermann, Kurer, and Schwander 2015;Häusermann and Schwander 2011;Marx and Picot 2013;Rueda 2005). However, a key question has so far not been answered: as atypical employment and unemployment is unequally distributed between men and women, the divide between insiders and outsiders might run right through the middle of households (Pierson 2001, 448).…”

“…In addition to tertiarization, the educational revolution has led to a broader and more heterogeneous middle class. As a consequence, atypical employment and unemployment increasingly affect middle-class workers as well (Häusermann et al 2015;Oesch 2006). Finally, the massive entry of women into paid work coincides with the spread of atypical employment throughout Western Europe (EspingAndersen 1999b; Estévez-Abe 2006).…”

“…Our work differs from these contributions, as we take temporary employment and involuntary part-time employment into account when conceptualizing labor market risk. These are the forms of vulnerable employment that have spread most massively over the past two Several recent studies have provided evidence for the claim that insiders and outsiders differ in their social policy preferences (Burgoon and Dekker 2010;Häusermann et al 2015;Marx 2014;Marx and Picot 2013;Rueda 2005Rueda , 2007Schwander and Häusermann 2013).…”

Conflictive preferences towards social investments and transfers in mature welfare states: The cases of unemployment benefits and childcare provision

“…An open question in this literature is how the shift towards the social investment model plays out on the micro-level of individual attitudes and preferences towards the welfare state. Which socio-political coalitions support social investment (Häusermann et al, 2015) and which new redistributive conflicts might emerge between existing welfare state beneficiary groups? Addressing these questions -as we do in this article -is crucial in order to assess the political viability of the social investment model in the long term.…”

Mismatch: University Education and Labor Market Institutions

“…Existing work in comparative political economy has long noted that restricted entry into jobs in manufacturing has created labor market dualization (Häusermann and Schwander 2012 ;Rueda 2007 ). However, there has been less attention paid to barriers to entry in high skilled professions (though see Häusermann, Kurer and Schwander ( 2015 ) on 'high skilled outsiders'). In many continental European countries, access to high-paying professions such as public notary is highly restricted and these professions have eff ectively protected themselves from market entry by rival fi rms or industries.…”