A UNIFIED EUROPE - HOW EURO-ATTITUDES RELATE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES

In this study, a number of psychological concepts have been measured ( through questionnaire-items) in 15 countries under the hypothesis that they could explain national differences in attitudes towards the euro . Based on the average country scores for each of these concepts, mult idimensional scaling (combined with hierarchical cluster analysis) rev ealed 5 regions and 2 unclustered countries (UK and Ireland) in three dimensions: 1. National economic pride and satisfaction; 2. Self-confi dent open-mindedness, 3. Progressive non-nationalistic. Structural equ ation modelling was further used to perform multiple group regression analyses in order to test for differential relationships between the p sychological concepts and the attitudes, for the different country reg ions. It could be shown that the majority of psychological variables h ave a significantly different impact on euro-attitudes. (C) 1998 Elsev ier Science B.V. AU rights reserved. PsycINFO classification: 2229; 29 30; 2960; 3920. JEL classification: D63; D84; E52; F33.