Where Inequality Feels Fair? Regional Contexts and Normative Preferences in Europe: An Urban–Rural Perspective at the NUTS-3 Level

This paper examines tolerance for income inequality across European territories at the NUTS-3 level using European Values Study microdata from 18 European countries. We analyze how objective inequality and territorial context relate to normative preferences across urban, intermediate, and rural regions. Ordered logit models with country fixed effects highlight within-country heterogeneity that higher spatial scales can hide. A beyond-Gini approach shows that the standard Gini coefficient is less informative for inequality tolerance, while alternative distribution-sensitive measures are more informative. Territorial structure matters: predominantly rural regions exhibit lower tolerance for income inequality than intermediate regions, which emerge as a distinct normative context rather than a simple midpoint. Institutional perceptions also operate in territorially differentiated ways, with confidence in the health care system playing a role in rural areas.