Replication data for: Does Less Income Mean Less Representation?

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Eric Brunner; Stephen L. Ross; Ebonya Washington

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
eb_sr_ew_POL2011-0244			10/26/2021 11:52:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/13/2019 03:35:AM

Project Citation:

Brunner, Eric, Ross, Stephen L., and Washington, Ebonya. Replication data for: Does Less Income Mean Less Representation? Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2013. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/E114824V1

Project Description

Summary: We assemble a novel dataset of matched legislative and constituent votes and demonstrate that less income does not mean less representation. We show: (i) The opinions of high- and low-income voters are highly correlated; the legislator's vote often reflects the desire of both. (ii) What differences in representation by income exist vary by legislator party. Republicans more often vote the will of their higher income over their lower income constituents; Democratic legislators do the reverse. (iii) Differences in representation by income are largely explained by the correlation between constituent income and party affiliation. (JEL D31, D72)

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

Geographic Coverage: California

Time Period(s): 1991 – 2008

Universe: California Voters

Data Type(s): census/enumeration data; roll call voting data

Methodology

Data Source: The Statewide Database, maintained by the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) at the University of California at Berkeley

Unit(s) of Observation: Census tract, Assembly/Senate district income terciles,

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-13]

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