In the US, preferences for more or less generous social policies are personal

Heading into the 2020 presidential election, many policy debates surround measures which would help to address economic insecurity, such as Medicare-for-All and higher minimum wage laws. In new research, Mallory E. Compton and Christine S. Lipsmeyer look into what drives voters to support more government spending on one such policy – unemployment insurance. They find that when the economy as a whole is bad, people support greater spending, no matter their own circumstances. On the other side of the coin, when government social programs are less comprehensive – as is the case in the US – support for such measures is driven by people’s own individual circumstances.