Does occupation shape attitudes on Europe: Benchmarking operationalizations

Occupation lies behind many models of individual economic interest, and individual economic interest lies behind most rational accounts of preferences. This article investigates the causal influence of occupation for Euroscepticism. Employing data from the 2003 International Social Science Survey Program, we find that (a) identity and occupation exert independent effects, (b) estimates of the total effect of these variables vary across countries in an explicable way, (c) political framing by political parties influences whether Euroscepticism is related to occupation or identity, and (d) reliability is a serious issue in measuring occupational location