Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation explores two main puzzles. First, why do some countries have more generous welfare policies than others? Second, why do some people support welfare policies more than others? This collection of essays aims to answer these two questions, focusing on the political and economic determinants of welfare policy and attitudes. Chapter 2 deals with methodological issues that will be addressed in the later substantive chapters. While this chapter discusses measurement error in general, it focuses on the problem that some respondents are likely to choose around the middle for reasons other than their true moderate attitudes in many survey items. The chapter formally analyzes the effects of this "concentrated measurement error" on the bias in regression coefficient estimates. It then proposes two estimation strategies for the handling of this problem. Turning to substantive research questions, Chapter 3 addresses the determinants of government welfare spending around the world. With the use of a unique dataset that has been constructed from six different cross-country social surveys and government finance statistics, this chapter demonstrates that public ideological preferences influence government decisions regarding the size of welfare expenditure. The chapter further presents a meaningful difference between fully and less democratic countries in welfare policy responsiveness; among less democratic countries, welfare spending policies have been little affected by public preferences. The empirical findings presented in this chapter serve as better evidence to support the mechanisms that traditional representation theories offer. In Chapter 4, I turn my attention to individual-level determinants. Recognizing the unique situation of the US, where the immigrant population is large and the natives have a distinctively individualistic taste for redistribution, this chapter assesses the role of socialization and assimilation by examining the political preferences of first-, second-, and third-generation immigrants with regard to welfare spending. It provides empirical evidence that first-generation immigrants show greater support for welfare than US-born natives; however, it also shows that the political views of immigrants more closely resemble those of US-born natives the longer that the immigrants stay in the US, thereby suggesting their assimilation into US society. Furthermore, this chapter documents that the more liberal views of first-generation immigrants do not persist into the next generation due to the effects of assimilation and socialization. / by Jungho Roh. / Ph.D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/64617 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Roh, Jungho |
| Contributors | James M. Snyder, Jr., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science. |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | M.I.T. Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 211 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
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