Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
April 15, 2018
Summary:
In this article we revisit the often disregarded pocketbook voting thesis that suggests that people evaluate governments based on the state of their own finances. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey over the last 20 years, we measure changes in personal financial circumstances and show that the pocketbook voting model works. Crucially, we also argue that the ability to attribute responsibility for these changes to the government matters. People respond much more strongly to changes in their own finances that are linked to government spending, such as welfare transfers, than to similar changes that are less clearly the responsibility of elected officials, such as lower personal earnings. We conclude that pocketbook voting is a real phenomenon, but that more attention should be paid to how people assign credit and blame for changes in their own economic circumstances.
Published in
The Journal of Politics
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 80 , p.555 -569
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/694549
ISSN
223816
Subjects
#524848