Intergenerational Transmission of Welfare Attitudes: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

Abstract

Rising inequality has intensified interest in the formation of welfare-state preferences, yet evidence on their intergenerational transmission remains scarce due to the rarity of surveys observing parents and children together. Using linked parent–child data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1997–2017), this paper investigates how individuals’ views on state responsibility for social protection are associated with their parents’ attitudes. We document strong intergenerational alignment in welfare attitudes. This alignment is markedly stronger for co-resident respondents than for those living independently from their parents, though it remains significant in both groups. The income gradient follows the reverse pattern: it is stronger for independent-living respondents in three of the five domains. To explore the mechanisms, we examine how parent–child similarity varies with family context, distinguishing direct (parental) from oblique (extra-familial) transmission. The evidence points to a selective direct channel: household signal coherence, proxied by parental agreement, strongly predicts closer alignment, whereas parental signal intensity and signal clarity exhibit no systematic effects. Complementary analyses on stability, life events, and selection on cohabitation reduce the concern that these associations merely reflect joint shocks or compositional sorting. These findings are consistent with families playing a role in the persistence of welfare-state preferences across generations.