Replication Data for: Who interacts with whom? Drivers of networked welfare governance in Europe

Migration is often perceived as a challenge to the welfare state. To manage this challenge, advanced welfare states have established transgovernmental networks. In this paper, we examine how domestic factors condition the interaction of representatives of advanced welfare states, when they are to cooperate on transnational welfare governance. Based on new survey-data, we compare who interacts with whom in one of the oldest transgovernmental networks of the European Union (EU), namely, the network dealing with EU citizens’ rights to cross-border welfare. First, we perform a welfare cluster analysis of EU-28 and test whether institutional similarity explains interaction. Furthermore, we test whether the level and kind of migration explains interaction and examine the explanatory value of administrative capacity. To test what drives interaction we employ social network analysis and exponential random graph models. We find that cooperation in networked welfare governance tends to be homophilous and that political cleavages between sending and receiving member states are mirrored in network interaction. Domestic factors are key drivers when advanced welfare states interact.