How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis

The literature on economic voting is vast. One of the primary debates is about how to measure economic performance as the central variable explaining incumbent survival. This paper offers a systematic examination of accumulated knowledge on economic voting and about different operationalizations of...

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Main Author: Arya Budi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: ANPOR Korea 2024-11-01
Series:Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15206/ajpor.2024.12.4.214
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author Arya Budi
author_facet Arya Budi
author_sort Arya Budi
collection DOAJ
description The literature on economic voting is vast. One of the primary debates is about how to measure economic performance as the central variable explaining incumbent survival. This paper offers a systematic examination of accumulated knowledge on economic voting and about different operationalizations of the key explanatory variable in individual-level economic voting studies. By investigating studies published in top-ranked journals and meta-analyzing the reported estimates, this paper finds that a sociotropic-retrospective measure, i.e., an individual’s perception of national economic conditions in the recent past, has a higher predictive power than other measures common in studies of economic voting. While a systematic meta-analysis has never been attempted using a large collection of works on individual-level economic voting studies, the findings also give us a strong reason to use sociotropic evaluation rather than pocketbook evaluation and more utilization of retrospective judgment than prospective. These other methods are also examined in the current article. This finding should help researchers choose measurement strategies in future studies.
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spelling doaj-art-e1b86162cd164afc8a4c150bb846a5352025-08-20T02:40:11ZengANPOR KoreaAsian Journal for Public Opinion Research2288-61682024-11-0112410.15206/ajpor.2024.12.4.214How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-AnalysisArya BudiThe literature on economic voting is vast. One of the primary debates is about how to measure economic performance as the central variable explaining incumbent survival. This paper offers a systematic examination of accumulated knowledge on economic voting and about different operationalizations of the key explanatory variable in individual-level economic voting studies. By investigating studies published in top-ranked journals and meta-analyzing the reported estimates, this paper finds that a sociotropic-retrospective measure, i.e., an individual’s perception of national economic conditions in the recent past, has a higher predictive power than other measures common in studies of economic voting. While a systematic meta-analysis has never been attempted using a large collection of works on individual-level economic voting studies, the findings also give us a strong reason to use sociotropic evaluation rather than pocketbook evaluation and more utilization of retrospective judgment than prospective. These other methods are also examined in the current article. This finding should help researchers choose measurement strategies in future studies.https://doi.org/10.15206/ajpor.2024.12.4.214
spellingShingle Arya Budi
How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis
Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
title How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis
title_full How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis
title_fullStr How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis
title_full_unstemmed How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis
title_short How Should Individual-Level Economic Voting Studies Measure Perceptions? A Meta-Analysis
title_sort how should individual level economic voting studies measure perceptions a meta analysis
url https://doi.org/10.15206/ajpor.2024.12.4.214
work_keys_str_mv AT aryabudi howshouldindividualleveleconomicvotingstudiesmeasureperceptionsametaanalysis