Power in Numbers: Examining the Influence of Political Majorities on Growth within the United States
Date of Creation
5-1-2016
Degree Type
Departmental Honors Thesis - Restricted Access
First Advisor
Professor Justin Svec
Abstract
In this paper I examine the relationship between the size of a political majority in state legislatures and its effect on state growth. The data used in this paper covers the 50 US states over the time period from 1993 to 2011. In order to calculate these effects, I implement an OLS empirical strategy in which I regress 2- and 4-year growth rates on the size of the political majority within a particular legislative chamber and a number of other covariates. My empirical strategy accounts for a possible non-linear relationship between growth and the size of the majority and that the relationship might depend on which political party is in the majority. I also tested the longevity of these effects on growth by lagging the majority variable. I show that large republican majorities provide strong increases to growth, while democratic majorities offer detrimental effects to growth. These effects appear to be short lived and do not persist into the future, implying that majorities do not have lasting impacts on growth.
Recommended Citation
Joyce, Greg, "Power in Numbers: Examining the Influence of Political Majorities on Growth within the United States" (2016). Economics and Accounting Honors Theses. 2.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/econ_honor/2