ABSTRACT
Research in economic voting has become increasingly comparative by nature. The most likely reason is the persistence of the comparative puzzle, which can be succinctly put as: Given the finding of temporal and spatial instability of vote and popularity functions (VP functions), what, if any, is the foundation of economic voting? The chapters in this volume argue that a foundation is to be found in “deep” socio-psychological factors. Economic voting is a theory about applied rational, i.e. reasoning, behavior. Rationality provides only a baseline (ideal) model. The application of such a baseline model requires an understanding of the “real” psychological environment in which thinking about the economy and using these thoughts to make voting decisions takes place. Three sets of variables are of special interest. Previous research suggests that people are generally risk averse. Further, investigation of socio-psychological factors calls for modest expectations about and a realistic assessment of the level of voter sophistication. Finally, emotional or affective factors may matter. Moreover, the impact of these factors need not be constant across political institutions and, perhaps even more obviously, personal contexts. With respect to the latter, a better understanding of voter heterogeneity expands knowledge of group differences in the applied reasoning that underlies economic-voting behavior. Thus, further theoretical development and empirical evaluation of the economic-voting paradigm need to account for these contextual effects.
