The Missing Link: Technological Change, Dual VET, and Social Policy Preferences
Journal
British Journal of Political Science
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2026-04-07
Author(s)
Abstract
How does technological change affect social policy preferences? We advance this lively debate by focusing on the role of dual vocational education and training (VET). Existing literature would lead us to expect that dual VET increases demand for compensatory social policy and magnifies the effect of automation risk on such demands. In contrast, we contend that dual VET weakens demand for compensatory social policy through three non-mutually exclusive mechanisms that we refer to as (i) material self-interest; (ii) workplace socialization; and (iii) skill certification. We further hypothesize that dual VET mitigates the association between automation risk and social policy preferences. Analyzing cross-national individual data from the European Social Survey and national-level data on education systems, we find strong evidence for our argument. The paper advances the debate on social policy preferences in the age of automation and sheds new light on the relationship between skill formation and social policy preferences.
Keywords
Technological change
vocational education
social policy
skill formation
automation
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Volume
56
Subject(s)
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
Haslberger et al. (2026) The Missing Link - Technological Change, Dual VET, and Social Policy Preferences.pdf
Size
760.17 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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