In this article, we pose the question: To what extent does a lack of individual resources and of access to high quality resources in one’s core social network explain why low-educated people are likely to experience economic vulnerability? Additionally, we explain cross-national differences in the risk that the low-educated run in terms of economic vulnerability. Multi-level models estimated for 22 countries of the European Social Survey show that a lack of labour market success and partner’s resources explain why the low-educated are likely to suffer from economic vulnerability. Next, we find a number of determinants to explain why the low-educated are better off in some countries than in others, i.e. cross-national variation in access of the low-educated group to high quality social resources, beliefs about the productivity of the group as a whole, structural labour market conditions and welfare state arrangements. In so far as welfare states can influence the contexts in which their (low-educated) citizens live, to a great extent they can also reduce economic vulnerability among the low-educated.
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