Marton Medgyesi

In the past twenty years European post-socialist countries have become more similar to EU15 countries in terms of institutional structure, economic development and in levels of income inequality. Did attitudes and opinions about inequality and redistribution also become more similar? A change in societal attitudes might come about by a general shift of attitudes of the population, but it might also come about by younger cohorts with different attitudes replacing older generations. This study thus examines whether attitudinal change takes place and by which of these two mechanisms. The aim is to investigate cohort differences in attitudes to inequality and redistribution using comparative repeated cross section data from World Values Survey carried out between 1990 and 2009 as well as International Social Survey Programme data from 1987-2009.