TY - JOUR
T1 - When Do Citizens Respond Politically to the Local Economy?
T2 - Evidence from Registry Data on Local Housing Markets
AU - Larsen, Martin Vinæs
AU - Hjorth, Frederik Georg
AU - Dinesen, Peter Thisted
AU - Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Recent studies of economic voting have focused on the role of the local economy, but with inconclusive results. We argue that while local economic conditions affect incumbent support on average, the importance of the local economy varies by citizens’ interactions with it. More recent and frequent encounters with aspects of the local economy make those aspects more salient and, in turn, feature more prominently in evaluations of the incumbent government. We label this process “context priming.” We provide evidence for these propositions by studying local housing markets. Linking granularly detailed data on housing prices from Danish public registries to both precinct-level election returns and an individual-level panel survey, we find that when individuals interact with the housing market, their support for the incumbent government is more responsive to changes in local housing prices. The study thus provides a framework for understanding when citizens respond politically to the local economy.
AB - Recent studies of economic voting have focused on the role of the local economy, but with inconclusive results. We argue that while local economic conditions affect incumbent support on average, the importance of the local economy varies by citizens’ interactions with it. More recent and frequent encounters with aspects of the local economy make those aspects more salient and, in turn, feature more prominently in evaluations of the incumbent government. We label this process “context priming.” We provide evidence for these propositions by studying local housing markets. Linking granularly detailed data on housing prices from Danish public registries to both precinct-level election returns and an individual-level panel survey, we find that when individuals interact with the housing market, their support for the incumbent government is more responsive to changes in local housing prices. The study thus provides a framework for understanding when citizens respond politically to the local economy.
U2 - 10.1017/S0003055419000029
DO - 10.1017/S0003055419000029
M3 - Journal article
VL - 113
SP - 499
EP - 516
JO - American Political Science Review
JF - American Political Science Review
SN - 0003-0554
IS - 2
ER -