scholarly journals Does residential sorting explain geographic polarization?

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Martin ◽  
Steven W. Webster
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Revealed Preferences ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Residential Sorting ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Geographic Polarization

AbstractPolitical preferences in the United States are highly correlated with population density, at national, state, and metropolitan-area scales. Using new data from voter registration records, we assess the extent to which this pattern can be explained by geographic mobility. We find that the revealed preferences of voters who move from one residence to another correlate with partisan affiliation, though voters appear to be sorting on non-political neighborhood attributes that covary with partisan preferences rather than explicitly seeking politically congruent neighbors. But, critically, we demonstrate through a simulation study that the estimated partisan bias in moving choices is on the order of five times too small to sustain the current geographic polarization of preferences. We conclude that location must have some influence on political preference, rather than the other way around, and provide evidence in support of this theory.

The Sociology of Country Music

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
American South ◽  
The United States ◽  
Country Music ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Race And Ethnic Relations ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The American South ◽  
Political Realignment

How can a sociological approach improve our understanding of country music? This chapter answers this question by focusing on the intersections between country music history and the core sociological theme of modernity. Challenging standard interpretations of country music as folk culture, it shows how the emergence of the popular commercial genre corresponds to the increasing modernization of the American South. The genre’s subsequent growth and evolution tracks central objects of sociological study including industrialization, geographic mobility, race and ethnic relations, the changing social class structure, political realignment in the United States, and (paradoxically) urbanization. Country music is comparatively understudied in the sociology of music despite its rich history and massive popularity; this chapter shows that the genre and the discipline nevertheless mutually illuminate one another in robust and often surprising ways.

scholarly journals A comparison and analysis of seven gun law permissiveness scales

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Reeping ◽  
Christopher N. Morrison ◽  
Kara E. Rudolph ◽  
Monika K. Goyal ◽  
Charles C. Branas
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
Single Factor ◽  
Cronbach’S Alpha ◽  
Relative Reliability ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
Gun Laws ◽  
Highly Correlated

Abstract Background Due to the differences in the way gun law permissiveness scales were created and speculation about the politically motivated underpinnings of the various scales, there have been questions about their reliability. Methods We compared seven gun law permissiveness scales, varying by type and sources, for an enhanced understanding of the extent to which choice of a gun law permissiveness scale could affect studies related to gun violence outcomes in the United States. Specifically, we evaluated seven different scales: two rankings, two counts, and three scores, arising from a range of sources. We calculated Spearman correlation coefficients for each pair of scales compared. Cronbach’s standardized alpha and Guttman’s lambda were calculated to evaluate the relative reliability of the scales, and we re-calculated Cronbach’s alpha after systematically omitting each scale to assess whether the omitted scale contributed to lower internal consistency between scales. Factor analysis was used to determine single factor loadings and estimates. We also assessed associations between permissiveness of gun laws and total firearm deaths and suicides in multivariable regression analyses. Results All pairs of scales were highly correlated (average Spearman’s correlation coefficient r = 0.77) and had high relative reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.968, Guttman’s lambda = 0.975). All scales load onto a single factor. The choice of scale did not meaningfully change the parameter estimates for the associations between permissiveness of gun laws and gun deaths and suicides. Conclusion Gun law permissiveness scales are highly correlated despite any perceived political agenda, and the choice of gun law permissiveness scale has little effect on study conclusions related to gun violence outcomes.

Does Party Trump Ideology? Disentangling Party and Ideology in America

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL BARBER ◽  
JEREMY C. POPE
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Research Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Group Loyalty ◽  
Policy Statements ◽  
Party Attachment ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Liberal Policy ◽  
Standing Question ◽  
Over Time

Are people conservative (liberal) because they are Republicans (Democrats)? Or is it the reverse: people are Republicans (Democrats) because they are conservatives (liberals)? Though much has been said about this long-standing question, it is difficult to test because the concepts are nearly impossible to disentangle in modern America. Ideology and partisanship are highly correlated, only growing more so over time. However, the election of President Trump presents a unique opportunity to disentangle party attachment from ideological commitment. Using a research design that employs actual “conservative” and “liberal” policy statements from President Trump, we find that low-knowledge respondents, strong Republicans, Trump-approving respondents, and self-described conservatives are the most likely to behave like party loyalists by accepting the Trump cue—in either a liberal or conservative direction. These results suggest that there are a large number of party loyalists in the United States, that their claims to being a self-defined conservative are suspect, and that group loyalty is the stronger motivator of opinion than are any ideological principles.

scholarly journals Latinas for Trump Analysis of Processes of Identification and the Use of Narratives to Construct Subject-Positions

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Mayela Zambrano
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Latino Community ◽  
The U.S

AbstractThe public and commercial spheres constantly address the largest ethnic minority in the United States, people with ancestry or from a Latin American country, as a homogenous group under the ethnopolitical terms “Latinos,” “Hispanics,” and even “Mexicans.” This panethnic view, and the negative stereotypes associated with it, was especially visible during the 2016 presidential election. While the majority of Latinos found Donald Trump’s remarks on “Mexicans” offensive to the Latin community as a whole, a large number of people still supported his opinions, even those belonging to the “Latino” community. Even more so, women of Latino heritage still supported a nominee that went against their own advance in society given his constant misogynistic comments. In this essay, I analyze the groundings for this apparent contradiction in the preference for said candidate. I argue that these women’s political preference is a tool with which they build their identity in the U.S. Besides, I explore the ways in which individuals linguistically construct their own identity in three ways (i) by actively doing the identification instead of merely receiving it by an unknown agent; (ii) by choosing the self-representation of their preference, and (iii) by finding commonalities and bonding with other individuals they deem part of their group. Through this approach, I analyze semiotic processes, such as intertextuality, use of pronouns, and discourse alignment, that are used to construct identifications of the self that go beyond imposed categories, such as gender and ethnicity.

scholarly journals Joseph Schumpeter Lecture, EEA Annual Congress 2017: Do Tax Cuts Produce more Einsteins? The Impacts of Financial Incentives VerSus Exposure to Innovation on the Supply of Inventors

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bell ◽  
Raj Chetty ◽  
Xavier Jaravel ◽  
Neviana Petkova ◽  
John Van Reenen
Keyword(s):  
Career Choice ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Childhood Exposure ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
Highly Correlated

Abstract Many countries provide financial incentives to spur innovation, ranging from tax incentives to research and development grants. In this paper, we study how such financial incentives affect individuals’ decisions to pursue careers in innovation. We first present empirical evidence on inventors’ career trajectories and income distributions using deidentified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records in the United States. We find that the private returns to innovation are extremely skewed—with the top 1% of inventors collecting more than 22% of total inventors’ income—and are highly correlated with their social impact, as measured by citations. Inventors tend to have their most impactful innovations around age 40 and their incomes rise rapidly just before they have high-impact patents. We then build a stylized model of inventor career choice that matches these facts as well as recent evidence that childhood exposure to innovation plays a critical role in determining whether individuals become inventors. The model predicts that financial incentives, such as top income tax reductions, have limited potential to increase aggregate innovation because they only affect individuals who are exposed to innovation and have essentially no impact on the decisions of star inventors, who matter most for aggregate innovation. Importantly, these results hold regardless of whether the private returns to innovation are fully known at the time of career choice or are fully stochastic. In contrast, increasing exposure to innovation (e.g., through mentorship programs) could have substantial impacts on innovation by drawing individuals who produce high-impact inventions into the innovation pipeline. Although we do not present direct evidence supporting these model-based predictions, our results call for a more careful assessment of the impacts of financial incentives and a greater focus on alternative policies to increase the supply of inventors.

An Economic Ranking of the US Presidents, 1789–2009: A Data-Based Approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (04) ◽  
pp. 596-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Zachary Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Grade Point Average ◽  
The United States ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Market Returns ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Stock Market Returns ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
The Us ◽  
Presidential Performance

AbstractHow relatively good or bad were the economic performances of our past presidents? The answers to this question remain unclear. Most evaluations of presidential performance cloud the issue with partisan bias and subjective judgments or mix economics together with other policy areas. To address these shortcomings, this article uses new data from the Measuring Worth Project to calculate the relative economic rankings of the United States presidents who served from 1789 until 2009. It analyzes up to 220 years of data on economic growth, unemployment, inflation, government debt, balance of payments, income inequality, currency strength, interest rates, and stock market returns to estimate an economic grade point average for each president. Then, these estimates are used to test for correlations with other variables to generate hypotheses regarding the conditions for superior and inferior economic performance.

Protective Capabilities of a Watersports Helmet for Boom-to-Head Impacts During Sailing

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenka L. Stepan ◽  
Irving S. Scher ◽  
Reed Thomas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Head Injury ◽  
Angular Velocity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Testing Device ◽  
Laboratory Setting ◽  
Head Impacts ◽  
Hybrid Iii ◽  
Angular Velocities ◽  
Highly Correlated

In sailing, the boom comes across the boat during tacks and jibes and has potential to impact a participant’s head and cause injury. To our knowledge, there are no sailing specific helmets on the market in the United States. To determine the effectiveness of a wakeboarding helmet to mitigate the risk of head injury, we measured the boom angular velocity on a 24-foot keel sailboat during controlled jibes. The boom motion was recreated in a laboratory setting and positioned to contact the occiput of the instrumented head of a Hybrid III 50th percentile male anthropometric testing device (ATD). Tests were conducted with an unhelmeted ATD and with an ATD wearing a wakeboarding helmet. Boom angular velocities and head accelerations for unhelmeted impacts were highly correlated (R2 = 0.996). The watersports helmet reduced head accelerations by 52 ± 4% when compared to accelerations from unhelmeted impacts.

Political alignment between firms and employees in the United States: evidence from a new dataset

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jan Stuckatz
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Action Committees ◽  
Data Matching ◽  
External Data ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Occupation Level ◽  
Political Alignment

Abstract I present a novel measure of partisan alignment between firms and employees. This measure is constructed using data matching 1,691,790 US federal campaign contribution filings of 85,109 individuals to the donations of 874 Political Action Committees (PACs) of publicly listed US companies between 2003 and 2016. The alignment measure shows that employee and employer contributions are highly correlated. Furthermore, firm- and occupation-level factors are significantly associated with firm–employee alignment. Uniquely, these new data can be easily linked to external data on industries, firms, and occupations and consequently allow for in-depth analysis of precisely how companies can influence employees’ politics.

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