Explaining why citizens support social and economic policies is an important research topic within political economy. The dominant theories in this field have largely ignored recent advances in political psychology that have helped understanding how individual differences influence political preference formation. One key finding is that personality traits, such as emotional stability, extraversion, openness to experiences, conscientiousness or agreeableness, have a strong impact on political attitudes and behaviour. In the proposed panel, we will discuss whether and how personality psychology can help us to better understand how experiences in the labour market, such as unemployment, insecurity or inequality, translate into political behaviour. The contributions will in different ways integrate political economy theories and recent advances in the study of personality.