Determinants of European Union Public Support for Development Aid: A Generalized Ordered Logistic Regression Analysis of Eurobarometer Data (1993–2019)

In order to explore the relationship between European public support for developmental aid and individual (e.g., gender, age, and education) and country-related factors, as well as changes in the path of public support over time, data from 17 independently pooled cross-sectional Eurobarometer surveys (1993–2019) have been used. This study focuses on the determinants of European citizens’ support for aid actions toward developing countries throughout the years. A generalized ordered logistic regression model was used to simulate the likelihood of classifying help as "very important," "fairly important," "not very important," or "not important at all" as a function of the independent variables with the help of the gologit2 function in Stata. Based on the data available from various time periods, four unique models were developed, enabling an investigation of changes in popular support over time. The findings from all of the models consistently demonstrate how variables including gender, age, education, occupation, political inclination, and place of residence influence support for developmental aid. In general, men are less inclined to support aid, and older people and people with less education are similarly less likely to think that aid is vital. On the other hand, stronger support is correlated with higher levels of education, professional employment, and left-leaning political opinions. In addition, a number of incidents were noted as potentially influencing the degree of support for aid during the previous few decades.