Testing Models of Distributive Politics using Exit Polls to Measure Voters Preferences and Partisanship

Valentino Larcinese, James Snyder and Cecilia Testa

No 278, Development Working Papers from Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano

Abstract: This paper tests various hypotheses about distributive politics by studying the distribution of federal spending across U.S. states over the period 1978-2002. We improve on previous work by using survey data to measure the share of voters in each state that are Democrats, Republicans, and independents, or liberals, conservatives and moderates. We find no evidence that the allocation of federal spending to the states is distorted by strategic manipulation to win electoral support. States with many swing voters are not advantaged compared to states with more loyal voters, nor do “battleground states” attract more federal funds. Moreover, we find that spending has little or no effect on voters’ choices, whereas partisanship and ideology have massive effects.

Keywords: Ideological attitudes; partisanship; distributive politics; federal budget (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2009-11-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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https://www.dagliano.unimi.it/media/WP2009_278.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Testing Models of Distributive Politics using Exit Polls to Measure Voters’ Preferences and Partisanship (2013)
Working Paper: TESTING MODELS OF DISTRIBUTIVE POLITICSUSING EXIT POLLS TO MEASURE VOTERPREFERENCES AND PARTISANSHIP (2006)
Working Paper: Testing models of distributive politics using exit polls to measure voter preferences and partisanship (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csl:devewp:278

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