Lugar: Sala de Reuniones del Departamento de Economía. Edificio Los Madroños, 2ª planta (ECON-2026)

Ponente: Socorro Puy (Universidad de Málaga)

Título: Endogenous Preference Formation on European Integration

Abstract: This article studies citizens’ preferences toward the advancement of the integration of the European Union. Accounting for the complexity of the EU’s institutional design, we apply different cognitive ability models describing how citizens interpret their membership in the Union. We show that depending on how citizens process the impact of EU legislation, we can justify distinct preference patterns. Using the 2019 European Election Study, we find that a rather sophisticated interpretation of the impact of the EU predominates over more simplistic interpretations. Preferences on the advance of EU integration are better explained when assuming that European citizens assess the interaction between European policy and domestic policies. We demonstrate that pro-integration preferences emerge among citizens who perceive that European policy serves to correct national policy. On the contrary, contra-European preferences manifest among citizens who perceive that the European policy interferes with national policy and diverts it from their preferred ideological direction. The study predicts heterogeneity and low polarization within European party families and alerts of the risk of disconnection of member states ideologically perceived as far from the EU policy position.