Cross-national analyses of economic voting

The present paper replicates and extends Powell and Whitten's study of comp arative economic voting (Powell, G. Bingham and Whitten, Guy D. (1993) A Cr oss-National Analysis of Economic Voting: Taking Account of the Political C ontext. American Journal of Political Science 37, 391-414). We extend Powel l and Whitten's research in three ways. First, we have developed a theoreti cally more appealing method for dividing our cases according to the clarity of government responsibility. Second, we consider whether the electoral ef fect of economic growth varies with government composition, with large coal itions focusing on the consensual goal of improving economic growth. Third, 40 new cases have been added to the original 102 analyzed by Powell and Wh itten. Using a more appropriate methodology and an expanded data set, we fi nd strong confirmation of the results presented in Powell and Whitten's stu dy. We also find evidence that supports our theory about coalition governme nts and economic growth. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .