Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Segal, Jeffrey | Lebo, Matthew J | Norpoth, Helmut | Box-Steffensmeier, Janet.
Date
2012-08-01
Keywords
Political Science | Consumer Spending, Economic Voting, Lydia, Presidential Approval, Text Analysis
Department
Department of Political Science
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71291
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Although political scientists have devoted thousands of pages to the role economic conditions play in political evaluations, less attention has been devoted to the role politics plays in explaining changes in economic behavior and the macroeconomy. Similarly, economists have spent decades studying the factors that lead to changes in macroeconomic conditions but have ignored most political variables. Linking the two literatures, I argue that in order to fully understand the economy one needs to incorporate politics--specifically presidential approval--and the media in addition to variables typically employed in macroeconomic models. This dissertation addresses three overlapping research questions. I first introduce a new measure of media sentiment and test its usefulness in a model of presidential approval. In the second empirical chapter, I examine the relationship between consumer confidence and presidential approval during two very different presidencies. Finally, I explore the effect of politics not just on economic behavior but also on volatility in that behavior. I find that consumer expenditures respond not only to the level of approval but also to volatility in approval. This provides evidence of the importance of political stability to economic growth in the United States, something long acknowledged in the comparative literature but largely absent from studies of the U.S. economy and politics. | 158 pages
Recommended Citation
Key, Ellen, "The Political Economy: Political Determinants of the Macroeconomy" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 497.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/497