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Employment and Gubernatorial Elections during the Gilded Age
Author(s) -
Heckelman J. C.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
economics and politics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1468-0343
pISSN - 0954-1985
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0343.00047
Subject(s) - gainful employment , gilded age , politics , state (computer science) , regression analysis , business cycle , economics , demographic economics , job satisfaction , labour economics , political science , statistics , macroeconomics , job performance , mathematics , management , keynesian economics , law , algorithm , job attitude
The theory of political business cycles predicts economies will experience a short‐run expansion during an election period. Cross‐sectional evidence from 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, and 1910, does not reveal statistically significant differences in gainful employment rates between states with and without a gubernatorial election in that year. Pooled regression analysis suggests gubernatorial elections are positively correlated with the state employment rate, but an annual fixed effect model designed to account for differences over time in the measurement of gainful employment mitigates this conclusion.