Regular Ph.D. Fellow, Cohort 2021

Research Interests

• Welfare Familialism
• Comparative Social Policy
• Family Solidarity
• Welfare Preferences
• Quantitative Methods
• Survey Methodology

Dissertation topic
Familialism begets familialism? How family solidarity shapes welfare preferences in Europe

Dissertation abstract
Although research on social policy preferences has explored multiple explanatory factors, it has barely addressed the role played by the family in welfare provision. The proposed dissertation intends to tackle this research gap by focusing on the role played by intergenerational solidarity arrangements in preference formation. As parents and adult children exchange resources to insure each other against life contingencies, the need for social benefits shrinks, but an undesired dependency on family solidarity might also lead to increased demands for public provision. The interplay between familyand state-based welfare provision and its’ potential effects on welfare preferences are explored, considering different specific policy designs from a comparative perspective, emphasising how institutional and cultural factors determine differences in family support across societies. The proposed studies take a quantitative approach based on the use of secondary survey data.

Academic Supervisors
Patrick Sachweh
Nate Breznau
Manuela Naldini