The social and economic preferences of a tech-savvy generation

In this paper, we try to explain what shapes the economic and social preferences of Millennials – the youngest and most tech-savvy generation today. In particular, we explore whether there is a (causal) link running from the existing economic context, to Millennials’ stated preferences with respect to welfare policies. It doing so, we present a first econometric analysis of a series of surveys run under the Millennial Dialogue project, an initiative designed to reveal the preferences and opinions of the Millennial generation. For this study, we use data collected between December 2014 and June 2016 from nine EU member states. Our main findings indicate that there appear to be two different tendencies when it comes to explaining Millennials’ preferences. The first tendency seems highly dependent on the (local) economic context, and calls for more redistributive policies and a more active role of the state. The second tendency, which is probably a much more fundamental one, drives their positive attitude towards the future and calls for policies that relate more to the idea of better risk-sharing within the society.

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