Economic Crisis, Social Networks, and Policy Preferences

Much research identifies the relevance of social networks and proximity to certain individuals or groups for a wide variety of preferences and behaviors. However, to date little research examines the role of such networks on political views during crises, and in particular under the contemporary eurozone “great recession". Departing from the fact that the crisis has not affected all social environments similarly, we hypothesize that individuals' views of policy responses to the crisis may be partially informed by the extent to which their social networks have directly experienced the effects of the recession. Using survey data from Spain, we find suggestive evidence that individuals who have more people in their social network who are undergoing economic duress (measured by unemployment spells, 'underwater' mortgages, or are otherwise having economic difficulties) are more likely to believe that social policy sacrifices to stay in the euro are less necessary. In some cases these effects are at least as large as individual-level covariates such as income and political ideology. The results might help explain some of the polarizing consequences of the crisis in terms of policy preferences, and illuminate some of the puzzles of the politics of redistribution in the aftermath of the great recession.