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The Missing Link: Technological Change, Dual VET, and Social Policy Preferences

Matthias Haslberger et al.

British Journal of Political Science2026https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123426101446article
ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

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.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123426101446

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@article{matthias2026,
  title        = {{The Missing Link: Technological Change, Dual VET, and Social Policy Preferences}},
  author       = {Matthias Haslberger et al.},
  journal      = {British Journal of Political Science},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123426101446},
}

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The Missing Link: Technological Change, Dual VET, and Social Policy Preferences

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.