Economic influences on presidential approval ratings
Date
2002-10
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Abstract
With the belief that public opinion toward salient economic issues is an important part of the domestic political environment, this paper proceeds to investigate the role of economic information in presidential popularity ratings, otherwise known as satisfaction ratings or performance ratings of the president. Alternatively, it will examine how economic variables influence the public's level of satisfaction with the performance of the president. The study uses theories on voting behavior, fundamentally the incumbency-oriented hypothesis (Kiewiet, 1983), in its treatment of respondent behavior in rating the performance of the president. The empirical part of the paper presents evidence favorable to the hypothesis '/. I using quarterly data on both the national and socioeconomic class (SEC)- specific measures of Satisfaction Ratings of Presidents, of Change in Quality of Life, of Performance Ratings of the Government on Specific Issues (Fighting Inflation), and measures of unemployment, from Social Weather Stations (SWS) reports. Data on inflation rate come from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
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Keywords
Public opinion, Political behavior, Economic performance, Presidential ratings, Approval ratings