Holdninger til ressursbruk i velferdsstaten blant yrkesaktive i offentlig og privat sektor

This chapter investigates whether public sector employees exhibit more favorable attitudes towards increasing different types of welfare state spending compared to workers in the private sector. The data are derived partly from a general population survey and partly from a survey directed towards civil servants working in the central state apparatus (ministries and directorates). We find that public sector employees who are directly involved in the production of welfare services are more inclined to support increasing welfare state expenditure compared to both private sector employees and other public sector workers. Contrary to a hypothesis about self-interested attitudes, however, the public welfare producers only stand out with higher support for expenditure on income transfers and not with higher support for expenditure on welfare services. The group that turns out to be most consistently restrictive with respect to welfare state expenditure is civil servants working in the central state apparatus.