Skip to main content

Economic Perceptions and Vote Choice: Disentangling the Endogeneity

Abstract

Much previous research shows that variation in vote choice closely follows variation in economic perceptions over time. A number of scholars argue that the pattern is rooted in cross-sectional effects and have found apparent evidence of such effects. However, most of these studies do not take into account the possibility that economic perceptions are themselves structured by vote choice, which poses potentially serious implications. We begin to address this endogeneity, focusing specifically on Lewis-Beck's (1988) analysis of economic voting. The results suggest that the cross-sectional effects of the economy on vote choice have been substantially overstated.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

REFERENCES

  • Bentler, P. M. (1985). Theory and Implementation of EQS, A Structural Equations Program. Los Angeles: BMDP Statistical Software.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentler, P. M., and D. G. Weeks (1980). Linear structural equations with latent variables. Psychometrika 45: 289-308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody, Richard (1991). Asessing the President: The Media, Elite Opinion, and Public Support. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes (1960). The American Voter. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conover, Pamela, Stanley Feldman, and Kathleen Knight (1987). The personal and political underpinnings of economic forecasts. American Journal of Political Science 31: 559-583.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, Robert S. (1982). The “uncorrelated errors” approach to the problem of causal feedback. Journal of Politics 44: 863-881.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, Robert S., and Christopher Wlezien (1966). Of time and presidential election forecasts. PS: Political Science and Politics 29: 37-39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fair, Ray (1988). The effect of economic events on the vote for president: A 1984 update. Political Behavior 10: 168-179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiorina, Morris P. (1978). Economic retrospective voting in American national elections: A micro-analysis. American Journal of Political Science 22: 426-443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hibbs, Doublas A. (1987). The American Political Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joreskog, K. G. (1973). A general method for estimating a linear structural equation system. In A. S. Goldberger and O. D. Duncan (eds.), Structural Equation Models in the Social Sciences (pp. 85-112). New York: Seminar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joreskog, K. G. (1977). Structural equation models in the social sciences: Specification, estimation and testing. In P. R. Krishnaiah (ed.), Applications of Statistics (pp. 265-287). Amsterdam: North Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiewiet, D. Roderick (1983). Macroeconomics and Micropolitics: The Electoral Effects of Economic Issues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinder, Donald R., and D. Roderick Kiewiet (1979). Economic discontent and political behavior: The role of personal grievances and collective economic judgments in congressional voting. American Journal of Political Science 23: 495-527.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinder, Donald R., and D. Roderick Kiewiet (1981). Sociotropic politics. British Journal of Political Science 11: 129-161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, Gerald H. (1971). Short-term fluctuations in U.S. voting behavior, 1896–1964. American Political Science Review 65: 131-143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, Gerald H. (1983). The ecological fallacy revisited: Aggregate-versus individual-level findings on economics and elections, and sociotropic voting. American Political Science Review 77: 92-111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladner, Matthew (1996). Economic Expectations and the Political Business Cycle. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Houston.

  • Lewis-Beck, Michael S. (1986). Comparative economic voting: Britain, France, Germany, Italy. American Journal of Political Science 30: 315-346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis-Beck, Michael S. (1988). Economics and Elections. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackuen, Michael B., Robert S. Erikson, and James A. Stimson (1992). Peasants or bankers? The American electorate and the U.S. economy. American Political Science Review 86: 597-611.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markus, Gregory (1988). The impact of personal and national economic conditions on candidate evaluation: A pooled analysis. American Journal of Political Science 32: 137-154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pindyck, Robert S., and Daniel L. Rubinfeld (1991). Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, Motoshi (1992). Political business cycles in the public's mind. American Political Science Review 86: 989-996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, Nathaniel T., and Christopher Wlezien (1996). The contamination of responses to survey items: Economic perceptions and political judgments. Political Analysis 5: 181-213.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wlezien, C., Franklin, M. & Twiggs, D. Economic Perceptions and Vote Choice: Disentangling the Endogeneity. Political Behavior 19, 7–17 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024841605168

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024841605168

Keywords

  • Vote Choice
  • Political Psychology
  • Economic Vote
  • Apparent Evidence
  • Economic Perception