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Partisan Pocketbooks: The Politics of Personal Financial Evaluations
Author(s) -
Weinschenk Aaron C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00856.x
Subject(s) - politics , ordinary least squares , probit model , polarization (electrochemistry) , economics , probit , personal income , political science , social psychology , positive economics , psychology , law , econometrics , macroeconomics , chemistry
Objective In this article, I apply the concept of partisan biases to personal financial evaluations. I ask whether there are systematic differences in partisans’ evaluations of their personal finances that depend on whether their preferred party occupies the W hite H ouse. I argue that when there is a D emocratic president in office, D emocrats will view their personal financial situations more favorably than R epublicans. Conversely, when there is a R epublican president in office, R epublicans will view their personal finances more favorably than D emocrats. Methods I use ordered probit and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models. Results I find that partisan biases do exist when it comes to personal financial evaluations. However, the weight assigned to partisanship when it comes to personal evaluations is contingent on the level of party polarization at the time of the survey. Conclusion Partisan biases are more pervasive than previously thought, even trickling down to evaluations that are personal in nature.