Gini-koefficienten och stödet för högerradikala Partier - En kvantitativ studie i hur sannolikheten för att rösta på högerradikala partier påverkas av förändringar i Gini koefficienten

Abstract

This essay is a study on how changes in income inequality affects individuals’ probability of voting for radical right-wing parties in European countries. To do this, we use the Gini-coefficient as the sole indicator of income inequality within a country. The essay contributes to former literature by including an interaction term in the regression model to analyse if changes in the Gini-coefficient affect individuals differently depending on their level of income or education. By combining control variables from cross-national panel data from Eurostat and individual data from interview-based surveys from European Social Survey we minimize the probability of omitted variable bias and by using a fixed effects method, we are able to adjust for country specific factors. Our final model emphasizes the variable education level and our results find that while both the Gini-coefficient and education level has a significant negative effect on the probability of voting for a radical right-wing party, the interaction term between the variables is both significant and positive. Our findings therefore imply that individuals with different level of education react differently to changes in the Gini-coefficient. Higher educated individuals will therefore respond to an increase in the Gini-coefficient by being more likely to vote for a radical right-wing party than their lower educated counterparts.