Abstract
One of the most widely discussed phenomena in American politics today is the perceived increasing partisan divide that splits the U.S. electorate. A contested question is whether this diagnosis is actually true and, if so, what the underlying cause might be. We propose a new method that simultaneously estimates voters’ preferences and parties’ positions on economic and cultural issues. We apply the model to U.S. presidential elections between 1972 and 2008. The model recovers candidates’ positions from voters’ behavior and decomposes changes in the overall political polarization of the electorate into changes in the distribution of voters’ ideal positions (voter radicalization) and consequences of elite polarization (sorting).
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 31-76 |
| Number of pages | 46 |
| Journal | Journal of Law and Economics |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2014 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics
- Law
Cite this
Policy divergence and voter polarization in a structural model of elections. / Krasa, Stefan; Polborn, Mattias.
In: Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 57, No. 1, 01.01.2014, p. 31-76.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Policy divergence and voter polarization in a structural model of elections
AU - Krasa, Stefan
AU - Polborn, Mattias
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - One of the most widely discussed phenomena in American politics today is the perceived increasing partisan divide that splits the U.S. electorate. A contested question is whether this diagnosis is actually true and, if so, what the underlying cause might be. We propose a new method that simultaneously estimates voters’ preferences and parties’ positions on economic and cultural issues. We apply the model to U.S. presidential elections between 1972 and 2008. The model recovers candidates’ positions from voters’ behavior and decomposes changes in the overall political polarization of the electorate into changes in the distribution of voters’ ideal positions (voter radicalization) and consequences of elite polarization (sorting).
AB - One of the most widely discussed phenomena in American politics today is the perceived increasing partisan divide that splits the U.S. electorate. A contested question is whether this diagnosis is actually true and, if so, what the underlying cause might be. We propose a new method that simultaneously estimates voters’ preferences and parties’ positions on economic and cultural issues. We apply the model to U.S. presidential elections between 1972 and 2008. The model recovers candidates’ positions from voters’ behavior and decomposes changes in the overall political polarization of the electorate into changes in the distribution of voters’ ideal positions (voter radicalization) and consequences of elite polarization (sorting).
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84925060847&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84925060847&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/675237
DO - 10.1086/675237
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84925060847
VL - 57
SP - 31
EP - 76
JO - Journal of Law and Economics
JF - Journal of Law and Economics
SN - 0022-2186
IS - 1
ER -