The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions

How does the economy influence party preferences in multi-level states? Using regional-level survey data from Canada, Germany and Spain, we show that there is a ‘cross-level’ effect of economic evaluations. Citizens thus take into consideration both the regional and the national economy when determi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Toubeau, Simon, Wagner, Markus
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52783/
_version_ 1848798808864980992
author Toubeau, Simon
Wagner, Markus
author_facet Toubeau, Simon
Wagner, Markus
author_sort Toubeau, Simon
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description How does the economy influence party preferences in multi-level states? Using regional-level survey data from Canada, Germany and Spain, we show that there is a ‘cross-level’ effect of economic evaluations. Citizens thus take into consideration both the regional and the national economy when determining their support for incumbents at either level. However, the way in which they do so depends on whether the same party is in office at two levels or not. If so, standard reward-punishment patterns apply. If different parties are in office at the two levels, incumbents at one level are rewarded for bad and punished for good economic outcomes at the other level. Overall, the influence of cross-level economic perceptions is about half as large as that of same-level economic perceptions. Our findings have important normative implications for the signalling function of elections.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:25:40Z
format Article
id nottingham-52783
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:25:40Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Elsevier
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-527832020-05-04T19:48:37Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52783/ The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions Toubeau, Simon Wagner, Markus How does the economy influence party preferences in multi-level states? Using regional-level survey data from Canada, Germany and Spain, we show that there is a ‘cross-level’ effect of economic evaluations. Citizens thus take into consideration both the regional and the national economy when determining their support for incumbents at either level. However, the way in which they do so depends on whether the same party is in office at two levels or not. If so, standard reward-punishment patterns apply. If different parties are in office at the two levels, incumbents at one level are rewarded for bad and punished for good economic outcomes at the other level. Overall, the influence of cross-level economic perceptions is about half as large as that of same-level economic perceptions. Our findings have important normative implications for the signalling function of elections. Elsevier 2018-08-30 Article PeerReviewed Toubeau, Simon and Wagner, Markus (2018) The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions. Electoral Studies, 54 . pp. 22-34. ISSN 0261-3794 economic voting accountability responsibility attribution federalism partisan congruence https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379418300878?via%3Dihub doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2018.04.019 doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2018.04.019
spellingShingle economic voting
accountability
responsibility attribution
federalism
partisan congruence
Toubeau, Simon
Wagner, Markus
The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
title The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
title_full The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
title_fullStr The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
title_full_unstemmed The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
title_short The economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
title_sort economy and party preferences in multi-level systems: the influence of economic perceptions and partisan congruence in six regions
topic economic voting
accountability
responsibility attribution
federalism
partisan congruence
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52783/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52783/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52783/