SELF-INTEREST OR SOLIDARITY? An examination of rising income inequality’s effect on attitudes toward welfare spending among high- income earners in Sweden

Abstract

With rising inequality all over the world and simultaneous concern about the economic viability of the welfare state model, research has paid increasing attention to how economic inequality affects public opinion towards welfare policy in developed welfare states. Where earlier results and cross-country comparisons have given contradictory results of this relationship, this paper looks at how attitudes toward welfare spending generosity among income groups in Sweden have developed since 1996 in the context of rising income inequality. It uses regional income inequality data to show the moderating effect of inequality on welfare spending attitudes among high-income earners. The direction of the result is counter to the hypothesis. Lower inequality has a negative effect on demand, and increasing inequality shows some tendency to lead to higher demand for welfare spending among the affluent.