Population Aging and the Rise of Populism in Europe
Despina Gavresi and
Anastasia Litina ()
Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics, University of Macedonia
Abstract:
This paper establishes population aging as a driving force of populism in a multilevel regression analysis of individuals living in European countries over the period 2002-2019. The focus is on the effect of ``aggregate'' population aging as opposed to individual aging. Populism expressed as populist attitudes is measured with individual-level data of nine consecutive rounds of the European Social Survey. We use data on voting for populist parties, political trust, and attitudes towards immigration. Our findings suggest an association of population aging with a declining electoral turnout, a higher support for populist parties, lower trust in political institutions, and a rise in anti-immigrant hostility. These effects are observed across both young and elderly voters.
Keywords: Population Aging; Populist Voting; Immigrant Attitudes; Trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J10 P00 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06, Revised 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cdm, nep-eur, nep-mig, nep-pol and nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2024_07
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