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The Job Market’s First Steps: Using Research Tools to Simplify the Process

Presidential Accountability
Economic Voting
Partisanship
Research Methods
Political Communication
Presidents often try to take credit for new jobs, but their success depends on partisan alignment and media coverage. Co-partisans are more likely to believe presidential claims, while out-partisans are skeptical or unaffected.
Published

January 1, 2011

Research Question

How do constituents respond to presidential efforts to claim credit for local economic gains, particularly job creation?

Main Finding

Presidents often try to take credit for new jobs, but their success depends on partisan alignment and media coverage. Co-partisans are more likely to believe presidential claims, while out-partisans are skeptical or unaffected.

Research Design

Survey experiments testing how voters react to job-related presidential credit-claiming messages under varying partisan and economic conditions.

Data Employed

Nationally representative survey experiments embedded in online panels, paired with local economic indicators and presidential messaging cues.

Substantive Importance

The study helps explain the limits of presidential influence on public perceptions of the economy, highlighting how partisanship mediates credit and blame in the political information environment.

Research Areas

Presidential Accountability, Economic Voting, Partisanship, Survey Experiments, Political Communication

Citation

@article{jobs,
  author = {Moore, Ryan T. and Reeves, Andrew},
  title = {The Job Market's First Steps: Using Research Tools to Simplify the Process},
  journal = {PS: Political Science and Politics},
  volume = {44},
  number = {2},
  pages = {385--391},
  year = {2011},
}