IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v89y2008i4p887-901.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

State Income Inequality and Presidential Election Turnout and Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • James K. Galbraith
  • J. Travis Hale

Abstract

Objective. This study examines the links among income inequality, voter turnout, and electoral choice at the state level in recent presidential elections. Methods. We introduce two new state‐level ecological data sets, estimated annual Gini coefficients of income inequality from 1969 to 2004 and a measure of income segregation across Census tracts within states in 1999. We test for associations among inequality, turnout, and party preference with cross‐sectional, fixed‐effects, and multilevel analyses. Results. The cross‐sectional effect of inequality on voter turnout and electoral choice is ambiguous. However, a fixed‐effects analysis links higher income inequality to lower voter turnout and also to a stronger Democratic vote. Multilevel results indicate that higher levels of economic segregation likewise are associated with depressed turnout, after controlling for individual voter characteristics and for state‐level income.

Suggested Citation

  • James K. Galbraith & J. Travis Hale, 2008. "State Income Inequality and Presidential Election Turnout and Outcomes," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(4), pages 887-901, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:89:y:2008:i:4:p:887-901
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00589.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00589.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00589.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen, 2000. "Understanding Increasing and Decreasing Wage Inequality," NBER Chapters, in: The Impact of International Trade on Wages, pages 227-268, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maoyong Fan & Anita Alves Pena, 2021. "Decomposing US Political Ideology: Local Labor Market Polarization and Race in the 2016 Presidential Election," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 56-70, March.
    2. Kosta Josifidis & Radmila Dragutinović Mitrović & Novica Supić, 2016. "Redistribution and Transmission Mechanisms of Income Inequality – Panel Analysis of the Affluent OECD Countries," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 63(2), pages 231-258, April.
    3. Galbraith, James & Choi, Jaehee, 2020. "The consequences of economic inequality for presidential elections in the United States," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 86-98.
    4. Boyce, James K. & Zwickl, Klara & Ash, Michael, 2016. "Measuring environmental inequality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 114-123.
    5. Michele Cantarella & Nicolo' Fraccaroli & Roberto Volpe, 2019. "Does fake news affect voting behaviour?," Department of Economics 0146, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    6. Kellermann, Kim Leonie, 2017. "Political participation and party capture in a dualized economy: A game theory approach," CIW Discussion Papers 4/2017, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    7. Heidrich, Stefanie, 2015. "Intergenerational Mobility in Sweden: a Regional Perspective," Umeå Economic Studies 916, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    8. Ping Xu & James C. Garand, 2010. "Economic Context and Americans' Perceptions of Income Inequality," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(s1), pages 1220-1241.
    9. Stefanie Heidrich, 2017. "Intergenerational mobility in Sweden: a regional perspective," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 1241-1280, October.
    10. Engelhardt, Carina & Wagener, Andreas, 2017. "The income distribution of voters: a case study from Germany," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-586, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    11. Gary A. Hoover & Mehmet E. Yaya, 2011. "Racial/Ethnic Income Inequality Responses to a Government Maintenance Program in the United States," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(3), pages 462-478, May.
    12. Daniel L. Bennet, 2016. "Subnational Economic Freedom and Performance in the United States and Canada," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 36(1), pages 165-185, Winter.
    13. Schaub, Max, 2021. "Acute Financial Hardship and Voter Turnout: Theory and Evidence from the Sequence of Bank Working Days," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 115(4), pages 1258-1274.
    14. Pinar Deniz & Burhan Can Karahasan & Mehmet Pinar, 2021. "Determinants of regional distribution of AKP votes: Analysis of post‐2002 parliamentary elections," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 323-352, April.
    15. Andrew J. Rettenmaier & Zijun Wang, 2012. "Regional variations in medical spending and utilization: a longitudinal analysis of US Medicare population," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 67-82, February.
    16. James Galbraith, 2009. "Inequality, unemployment and growth: New measures for old controversies," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(2), pages 189-206, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robin Leichenko & Julie Silva, 2004. "International Trade, Employment and Earnings: Evidence from US Rural Counties," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 355-374.
    2. Carl Lin, 2016. "How Do Immigrants From Taiwan Fare In The U.S. Labor Market?," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(05), pages 1-38, December.
    3. Jeff Borland, 1999. "Earnings Inequality in Australia: Changes, Causes and Consequences," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(2), pages 177-202, June.
    4. Christopher H. Wheeler, 2007. "Industry localisation and earnings inequality: Evidence from U.S. manufacturing," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(1), pages 77-100, March.
    5. Tomiura, Eiichi, 2003. "Changing economic geography and vertical linkages in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 561-581, December.
    6. Christopher H. Wheeler, 2005. "Cities, Skills, and Inequality," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 329-353, June.
    7. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Peter K. Schott, 2001. "Factor Price Equality and the Economies of the United States," NBER Working Papers 8068, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Alfonso Gambardella & David Ulph, 2002. "Technology, Entrepreneurship, And Inequality," LEM Papers Series 2002/06, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    9. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    10. Fredrik Andersson & Elizabeth E. Davis & Matthew L. Freedman & Julia I. Lane & Brian P. Mccall & Kristin Sandusky, 2012. "Decomposing the Sources of Earnings Inequality: Assessing the Role of Reallocation," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 779-810, October.
    11. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Health Status in the United States: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(3), pages 510-539.
    12. Konstantinos Zougris & Richard Gee & Dimitrios Zaras, 2015. "Regional Development, World System¡¯s Taxonomies and Inequality: A MESO-Domain Approach," International Journal of Regional Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 2(1), pages 39-57, June.
    13. John Abowd & John Haltiwanger & Julia Lane, 2009. "Wage Structure and Labor Mobility in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: The Structure of Wages: An International Comparison, pages 81-100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Nicolas Fleury & Fabrice Gilles, 2012. "MOBILITES INTERGENERATIONNELLES DE CAPITAL HUMAIN ET RESTRUCTURATIONS INDUSTRIELLES. UNE EVALUATION POUR LE CAS DE LA France, 1946-1999," Working Papers hal-00988949, HAL.
    15. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 1999. "Re-Examining the Evidence of an Ecological Association between Income Inequality and Health," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9922, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    16. Edinaldo Tebaldi & Jongsung Kim, 2010. "Two Tales on the Returns to Education: The Impact of Trade on Wages," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(4), pages 768-782, November.
    17. Elizabeth A. La Jeunesse & Christopher H. Wheeler, 2007. "Neighborhood income inequality," Working Papers 2006-039, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    18. Gordon H. Hanson & Matthew J. Slaughter, 1999. "The Rybczynski Theorem, Factor-Price Equalization, and Immigration: Evidence from U.S. States," NBER Working Papers 7074, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Andrew B. Bernard & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2013. "Testing for Factor Price Equality with Unobserved Differences in Factor Quality or Productivity," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 135-163, May.
    20. Simon Burgess & Julia Lane & Kevin McKinney, 2009. "Matching, Reallocation and Changes in Earnings Dispersion," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 91-110, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:89:y:2008:i:4:p:887-901. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.