scholarly journals Familiarity and Trust: Explaining Trust in Government through Ethno-racial Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-410
Author(s):  
Eglė Vaidelytė ◽  
Eglė Butkevičienė ◽  
Vaidas Morkevičius ◽  
Michiel De Vries
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Individual

The paper investigates whether generalized trust in government varies among ethnic groups in a society. Theories on trust predominantly explain such institutional trust by the capabilities and intentions of the trusted actors and research into trust is mostly done at the individual level measuring whether individual characteristics of the trustee and trusted one have explanatory power. Meanwhile this paper analyzes the institutional trust at the macro (country) level. Based on a comparative study among 29 countries, this paper argues that there are significant differences between ethnic groups regarding their trust in the country‘s government and that significant effects are visible with the country‘s income inequality and one of Hofstede‘s dimensions of national culture, namely ‘power distance‘. This is an important finding as it calls for multilevel analyses when explaining institutional trust. Trust is not only dependent on individual characteristics of the trusted one and the trustee, but also on macro-level variables.  

scholarly journals Characteristics Contributing to Low- and Minimum-Wage Labour in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 240 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 161-200
Author(s):  
Matthias Dütsch ◽  
Ralf Himmelreicher
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Wage Labour ◽  
Random Intercept ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIn this article we examine the correlation between characteristics of individuals, companies, and industries involved in low-wage labour in Germany and the risks workers face of earning hourly wages that are below the minimum-wage or low-wage thresholds. To identify these characteristics, we use the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2014. The SES is a mandatory survey of companies which provides information on wages and working hours from about 1 million jobs and nearly 70,000 companies from all industries. This data allows us to present the first systematic analysis of the interaction of individual-, company-, and industry-level factors on minimum- and low-wage working in Germany. Using a descriptive analysis, we first give an overview of typical low-paying jobs, companies, and industries. Second, we use random intercept-only models to estimate the explanatory power of the individual, company, and industry levels. One main finding is that the influence of individual characteristics on wage levels is often overstated: Less than 25 % of the differences in the employment situation regarding being employed in minimum-wage or low-wage jobs can be attributed to the individual level. Third, we performed logistic and linear regression estimations to assess the risks of having a minimum- or low-wage job and the distance between a worker’s actual earnings and the minimum- or low-wage thresholds. Our findings allow us to conclude that several determinants related to individuals appear to suggest a high low-wage incidence, but in fact lose their explanatory power once controls are added for factors relating to the companies or industries that employ these individuals.

Inequality in active ageing: evidence from a new individual-level index for European countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIKKEL BARSLUND ◽  
MARTEN VON WERDER ◽  
ASGHAR ZAIDI
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Share Data ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACTIn the context of emerging challenges and opportunities associated with population ageing, the study of inequality in active-ageing outcomes is critical to the design of appropriate and effective social policies. While there is much discussion about active ageing at the aggregate country level, little is known about inequality in active-ageing experiences within countries. Based on the existing literature on active ageing, this paper proposes an individual-level composite active ageing index based on Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data. The individual-level nature of the index allows us to analyse inequality in experiences of active ageing within selected European countries. One important motivation behind measuring active ageing at the individual level is that it allows for a better understanding of unequal experiences of ageing, which may otherwise be masked in aggregate-level measures of active ageing. Results show large differences in the distribution of individual-level active ageing across the 13 European countries covered and across age groups. Furthermore, there is a positive association between the country-level active ageing index and the equality of its distribution within a country. Hence, countries with the lowest average active ageing index tend to have the most unequal distribution in active-ageing experiences. For nine European countries, where temporal data are also available, we find that inequality in active-ageing outcomes decreased in the period 2004 to 2013.

scholarly journals On “Nationology”: The Gravitational Field of National Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 002202212110447
Author(s):  
Plamen Akaliyski ◽  
Christian Welzel ◽  
Michael Harris Bond ◽  
Michael Minkov
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Field ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Collective Phenomenon ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual

Nations have been questioned as meaningful units for analyzing culture due to their allegedly limited variance-capturing power and large internal heterogeneity. Against this skepticism, we argue that culture is by definition a collective phenomenon and focusing on individual differences contradicts the very concept of culture. Through the “miracle of aggregation,” we can eliminate random noise and arbitrary variation at the individual level in order to distill the central cultural tendencies of nations. Accordingly, we depict national culture as a gravitational field that socializes individuals into the orbit of a nation’s central cultural tendency. Even though individuals are also exposed to other gravitational forces, subcultures in turn gravitate within the limited orbit of their national culture. Using data from the World Values Survey, we show that individual values cluster in concentric circles around their nation’s cultural gravity center. We reveal the miracle of aggregation by demonstrating that nations capture the bulk of the variation in the individuals’ cultural values once they are aggregated into lower-level territorial units such as towns and sub-national regions. We visualize the gravitational force of national cultures by plotting various intra-national groups from five large countries that form distinct national clusters. Contrary to many scholars’ intuitions, alternative social aggregates, such as ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, as well as diverse socio-demographic categories, add negligible explained variance to that already captured by nations.

scholarly journals Regional brands produced beyond the region: An analysis of beer brands from recently closed breweries in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-183
Author(s):  
Jiří Hasman ◽  
David Hána ◽  
Kryštof Materna
Keyword(s):  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Complete Sample ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Global Industry ◽  
Production Location ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Global industry has been undergoing changes in the concentration of brand ownership and production, with acquisitions and closures being a major factor in this evolution. The impacts of such activities are commonly studied from an economic perspective and from the perspective of internal firm-level and deal-level factors, while the influence of external geographical factors is largely neglected. Our research focuses mainly on the importance of geographical cultural factors affecting beer brands whose production location was moved after the closure of the original breweries. The research includes a complete sample of 30 brands from recently closed breweries across Europe. Brands are divided into seven categories according to how their marketing strategy has (or has not) changed in terms of exploiting regional and national identity. The overall success of these brands is then measured in terms of the development of their share in the home countries’ markets. Differences in brands’ strategies and successes are explained through a wide range of country-level factors and the individual characteristics of the breweries. It is shown that the level of beer tradition or identity in the countries, as well as the country’s beer life-cycle position, plays a crucial role in the evolution of the studied brands.

scholarly journals Who is afraid of more women in politics, and why? An analysis of public opinion in 28 European countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimiter Toshkov ◽  
Giulia Cretti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gender Parity ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Masculine Culture

We study how individual and country-level variables interact in affecting political gender attitudes in Europe. Based on data from the 2017 Eurobarometer survey, we show that there are high levels of support for more women in politics and legal measures to achieve gender parity across the EU. In fact, more people, and women in particular, put higher trust in female compared to male political representatives than the other way round. We find that – at the individual level – gender, age and education have significant effects on political gender attitudes. Contrary to theory, however, the effect of gender is not mediated by beliefs about the proper role of women in politics and society. We also do not find support for the contextual effects of masculine culture and the religiosity of society, but we do uncover significant gaps in political gender attitudes between post-communist and other countries, especially for men. This gap is very significant in size and declines only marginally with the age of the respondent. Our study identifies men in post-communist countries as the group least likely to trust female politicians and support gender parity in politics in Europe. These attitudes are at least partly independent from stereotypes about gender roles.

In Search of the “Society Genes”: What Could Be a Link Between Individual Genetics and Social Structure

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Denis S. Andreyuk
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Genetic Determinants ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Genetically Determined

Genome editing technologies make it important to look for genetic determinants that can influence the structure of society and basic social relations. This paper proposes to look for such determinants in the evolutionarily ancient mechanisms of group interaction, namely in the genes that determine the balance of cooperation and competition. The opposition of these two forces is thought to be the basis of the evolutionary development of intelligence in higher primates and humans. The article provides examples showing that individual characteristics such as extraversion/introversion as measured by the "Big Five" methodology, aggressiveness, which strongly associates with the risk taking, and the level of intelligence, all of these traits a) greatly influence the organization of social processes and b) are largely genetically determined. As a development of this approach of searching for socially significant genetic determinants, it is proposed to model genetic changes in sociality, aggressiveness and intelligence at the individual level, followed by an analysis of the resulting social changes.

scholarly journals The Role of Individual- and Contextual-Level Social Capital in Product Boycotting: A Multilevel Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Zasuwa
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Consumer Participation ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Consumer Activism ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Individual

Product boycotts represent an important form of sustainable consumption, as withholding purchasing can restrain firms from damaging the natural environment or breaking social rules. However, our understanding of consumer participation in these protests is limited. Most previous studies have focused on the psychological and economic determinants of product boycotting. Drawing on social capital literature, this study builds a framework that explains how individual- and contextual-level social capital affects consumer participation in boycotts of products. A multilevel logistic regression analysis of 29 country representative samples derived from the European Social Survey (N = 54221) shows that at the individual level product boycotting is associated with a person’s social ties, whereas at the country level, generalized trust and social networks positively affect consumer decisions to take part in these protests. These results suggest that to better understand differences among countries in consumer activism, it is necessary to consider the role of social capital as an important predictor of product boycotting.

Gender equality and work–family conflict from a cross-national perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 385-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayle Kaufman ◽  
Hiromi Taniguchi
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Logistic Models ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gender Egalitarianism ◽  
Country Level ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Work Family ◽  
The Individual

This study examines the relationship between gender ideology at the individual level, gender equality at the country level, and women and men’s experiences of work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW). We use data from the 2012 International Social Survey Programme as well as the 2011 to 2015 Human Development Reports. Our sample consists of 24,547 respondents from 37 countries. Based on multilevel mixed-effects logistic models, we find that women are more likely than men to experience WIF and FIW. At the individual level, traditional gender ideology positively predicts WIF and FIW. Women and men who reside in more gender-unequal countries have a higher likelihood of FIW while men in these contexts also are more likely to experience WIF. Societal gender inequality is more consequential for those who hold less traditional gender ideology. In conclusion, gender egalitarianism at the individual level and gender equality at the country level are both associated with less WIF and FIW. Policies that seek to address work–family balance should incorporate measures to promote gender equality.

scholarly journals Public support for the right to euthanasia: Impact of traditional religiosity and autonomy values across 37 nations

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maksim Rudnev ◽  
Aleksandra Savelkaeva
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Moral Attitudes

This article takes a postmodernization perspective on support for the right to euthanasia by treating it as an expression of a process of value change, as a preference for quality over quantity of life. Using the data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, this study attempts to answer the question of whether the mass support for the right to euthanasia is an expression of autonomy values rather than just a function of a low religiosity. Multilevel regressions demonstrate that both traditional religiosity and autonomy values have a high impact at the individual level, while at the country level only the effects of traditional religiosity are significant. Autonomy values have stronger association with attitudes to euthanasia in countries with higher levels of postmaterialism. Multilevel path analysis demonstrates that the effect of religiosity is partially and weakly mediated by the values of autonomy at both levels. Although religiosity was found to have a much stronger impact, the independent effect of autonomy values suggests that mass support for the right to euthanasia is a value-driven preference for quality over quantity of life. We conclude by suggesting that the fall in traditional religiosity might emphasize the role of values in moral attitudes regulation.

scholarly journals Cross-Cultural Variations in Extreme Rejecting and Extreme Affirming Response Styles

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 955-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tieyuan Guo ◽  
Roy Spina
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Response Style ◽  
Response Styles ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual

Previous research has discussed cultural differences in moderacy vs extremity response styles. The present research found that cultural differences in response styles were more complex than previously speculated. We investigated cross-cultural variations in extreme rejecting versus affirming response biases. Although research has indicated that overall Chinese have less extreme responses than Westerners, the difference may be mainly driven by extreme rejecting responses because respondents consider answering survey questions as a way of interacting with researchers, and extreme rejecting responses may disrupt harmony in relationships, which is valued more in Chinese collectivistic culture than in Western individualistic cultures. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that Chinese had less extreme rejecting response style than did British, whereas they did not differ in extreme affirming response style. Study 2 further revealed that the cross-cultural asymmetry in extreme rejecting versus affirming response styles was partially accounted for by individualism orientation at the individual level. Consistently, Study 3 revealed that at the country level, individualism was positively associated with extreme rejecting response style, but was not associated with extreme affirming response style, suggesting that individualism accounted for the asymmetric cultural variation in extreme rejecting versus affirming response styles.

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