Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:38:38.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Information and Economic Voting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2016

Jonathan Rogers  and
Marcelo Tyszler
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The connection between the economy and vote choice continues to garner interest both in the academic and popular press. To isolate the effects of economic considerations, we develop a laboratory experiment that allows us to vary these considerations at three levels: the individual, community, and national economy. Choices by policymakers directly affect outcomes at each of these levels, allowing us to test for egotropic, “communotropic,” and sociotropic voting, as well as examine information search. We observe significant demand for information and that demand decreases with the complexity of the environment. Moreover, information demand is positively associated with other-regarding behavior.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , October 2018 , pp. 753 - 770
Copyright
© The European Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Jonathan Rogers, PhD, Visiting Assistant Research Professor, Division of Social Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188 Abu Dhabi, UAE ([email protected]). Marcelo Tyszler, PhD, Senior Advisor, Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Postbus 95001, 1090 HA Amsterdam Nederland ([email protected]). Previous versions of this paper have been presented at the APSA and MPSA conferences, as well as at the IMEBE Conference in Barcelona. This project has benefited greatly from the advice and wisdom of Jens Grosser and Arthur Schram, also from comments by the seminar participants at CREED, NYU, and the xs/fs cluster at Florida State University. Funding for this project was provided by Jens Grosser, the Department of Political Science at Florida State University, and the Research Priority Area Behavioral Economics of the University of Amsterdam. To view supplementary material for this article, please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2016.27

References

Anderson, Cameron D. 2006. ‘Economic Voting and Multilevel Governance: A Comparative Individual-Level Analysis’. American Journal of Political Science 50(2):449–463.Google Scholar
Arcelus, Francisco, and Meltzer, Allen. 1975. ‘The Effect of Aggregate Economic Variables on Congressional Elections’. American Political Science Review 69(4):1232–1239.Google Scholar
Berry, Christopher, and Howell, William. 2007. ‘Accountability and Local Elections: Rethinking Retrospective Voting’. The Journal of Politics 69(3):844–858.Google Scholar
Chamlee-Wright, Emily, and Storr, Virginia. 2010. ‘Expectations of Government’s Response to Disaster’. Public Choice 144(1):253–274.Google Scholar
Duch, Raymond, Palmer, Harvey, and Anderson, Christopher. 2000. ‘Heterogeneity in Perceptions of National Economic Conditions’. American Journal of Political Science 44(4):635–652.Google Scholar
Feddersen, Timothy, Gailmard, Sean, and Sandroni, Alvara. 2009. ‘Moral Bias in Large Elections: Theory and Experimental Evidence’. American Political Science Review 203(2):175–192.Google Scholar
Fehr, Ernst, and Fischbacher, Urs. 2003. ‘The Nature of Human Altruism’. Nature 425:785–791.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris. 1978. ‘Economic Retrospective Voting in American National Elections: A Micro-Analysis’. American Journal of Political Science 22(2):426–443.Google Scholar
Fischbacher, Urs. 2007. ‘z-Tree: Zurich Toolbox for Ready-Made Economic Experiments’. Experimental Economics 10(2):171–178.Google Scholar
Gemmell, Norman, Morrissey, Oliver, and Pinar, Abuzer. 2004. ‘Tax Perceptions and Preferences Over Tax Structure in the United Kingdom’. The Economic Journal 114:F117–38.Google Scholar
Glasgow, Garrett. 2005. ‘Evidence of Group-Based Economic Voting: NAFTA and Union Households in the 1992 U.S. Presidential Election’. Political Research Quarterly 58(3):427–434.Google Scholar
Gomez, Brad T., and Wilson, J. Matthew. 2001. ‘Political Sophistication and Economic Voting in the American Electorate: A Theory of Heterogeneous Attribution’. American Journal of Political Science 45(4):899–914.Google Scholar
Gomez, Brad T., and Wilson, J. Matthew. 2007. ‘Economic Voting and Political Sophistication: Defending Heterogeneous Attribution’. Political Research Quarterly 60(3):555–558.Google Scholar
Grafstein, Robert. 2005. ‘The Impact of Employment Status on Voting Behavior’. Journal of Politics 67(3):804–824.Google Scholar
Greiner, Ben. 2004. ‘An Online Recruitment System for Economic Experiments’. In Kurt Kremer and Volker Macho (eds), Forschung und wissenschaftliches Rechnen 2003. GWDG Bericht 63, 79–93. Gottingen: Ges. fr Wiss. Datenvararbeitung.Google Scholar
Hetherington, Marc. 1996. ‘The Media’s Role in Forming Voters’ National Economic Evaluations in 1992’. American Journal of Political Science 40(2):372–395.Google Scholar
Holbrook, Thomas, and Garand, James C.. 1996. ‘Homo Economus? Economic Information and Economic Voting’. Political Research Quarterly 49:351–375.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald, and Kiewiet, Roderick. 1979. ‘Economic Discontent and Political Behavior: The Role of Personal Grievances and Collective Economic Judgements in Congressional Voting’. American Journal of Political Science 23:495–527.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard R., and Heldman, Caroline. 2009. ‘Self-Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, and Support for Public Policy: A Multilevel Analysis’. Political Psychology 30:513–537.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard R., and Redlawsk, David. 2006. How Voters Decide. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lepper, Susan. 1974. ‘Voting Behavior and Aggregate Policy Targets’. Public Choice 25(2):67–82.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Tien, Charles. 1996. ‘The Future in Forecasting: Prospective Presidential Models’. American Politics Quarterly 24:468–491.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Paldam, Martin. 2000. ‘Economic Voting: An Introduction’. Electoral Studies 19:113–121.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Nadeau, Richard. 2011. ‘Economic Voting Theory: Testing New Dimensions’. Electoral Studies 30:288–294.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Rice, Tom W.. 1984. ‘Forecasting U.S. House Elections’. Legislative Studies Quarterly 9:475–486.Google Scholar
Lodge, Milton, and McGraw, Kathleen M.. 1995. Political Judgement: Structure and Process. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Markus, Gregory. 1988. ‘The Impact of Personal and National Economic Conditions on the Presidential Vote’. American Journal of Political Science 29:137–154.Google Scholar
Nannestad, Peter, and Paldam, Martin. 1994. ‘The VP-Function: A Survey of the Literature on Vote and Popularity Functions After 25 Years’. Public Choice 79:213–245.Google Scholar
Norpoth, Helmut. 1996. ‘Of Time and Candidates: A Forecast for 1996’. American Politics Quarterly 24:443–467.Google Scholar
Peterson, Paul. 1981. City Limits. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham, and Whitten, Guy. 1993. ‘A Cross-National Analysis of Economic Voting: Taking Account of the Political Context’. American Journal of Political Science 37(2):391–414.Google Scholar
Redlawsk, David. 2004. ‘What Voters Do: Information Search During Election Campaigns’. Political Psychology 25(4):595–610.Google Scholar
Rogers, Jonathan. 2014. ‘A Communotropic Theory of Economic Voting’. Electoral Studies 36:107–116.Google Scholar
Rogers, Jonathan. 2016. ‘Tea Party Support and Perceptions of Local Economic Conditions’. Electoral Studies 42:91–98.Google Scholar
Schram, Arthur, and Sonnemans, Joep. 2011. ‘How Individuals Choose Health Insurance: An Experimental Analysis’. European Economic Review 55:799–819.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Turner, John C.. 1979. ‘An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict’. In W.G. Austin and S. Worchel (eds), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, 33–47. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Billig, Michael. 1974. ‘Familiarity and Categorization in Intergroup Behavior’. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 10:159–170.Google Scholar
Tilley, James, and Hobolt, Sara. 2011. ‘Is the Government to Blame? An Experimental Test of How Partisanship Shapes Perceptions of Performance and Responsibility’. Journal of Politics 73(2):316–330.Google Scholar
Wlezien, Christopher, and Erikson, Robert S.. 1996. ‘Temporal Horizons and Presidential Election Forecasts’. American Politics Quarterly 24:492–505.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Rogers and Tyszler supplementary material

Appendix

Download Rogers and Tyszler supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 285 KB
Supplementary material: File

Rogers and Tyszler supplementary material

Rogers and Tyszler supplementary material 1

Download Rogers and Tyszler supplementary material(File)
File 20.1 KB