The Lacuna Project

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Exhibit 703

Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review

Exhibit 703 ยท Peer-reviewed systematic review

Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review

Often, the preferences of income groups overlap in a way that yields roughly equal representation, and even when income groups have opposing preferences, representational disparities are limited and better explained by partisanship than affluence

Codes 1,163 responsiveness estimates from 25 studies. Finds a positive income gradient overall with large variation. The predicted probability of an extreme pro-rich result (rich coefficient positive and significant, lower-income coefficient negative; high-versus-low comparisons) is .59 for models that enter several income groups together and .08 for models run separately; 96 percent of the models producing it enter several groups together. Differentials are weaker in the United States than in other democracies in published work. In US studies both parties respond more strongly to the rich than to the poor; Democrats overrepresent the poor relative to Republicans (study-level probabilities .27 against .12); Republicans overrepresent the rich over the poor in 8 of 10 cases and Democrats in about 2 of 3. Partisanship does not change the rich-over-middle result. More than one-third of studies (9 of 25) use only multivariate income-group models. The authors conclude the degree of differential responsiveness 'remains highly contested'.

Source
Mads Andreas Elkjaer and Michael Baggesen Klitgaard, Perspectives on Politics 22(2), pp. 318-337 (online 11 October 2021)
Date
June 2024
Quoted from
p. 318
Grade
Peer-reviewed
Document
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592721002188
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding POL-2.8
Peer-reviewed Bartels analyzed Senate roll calls from 1989 to 1994 and reported responsiveness to constituents in the middle and upper income thirds and no evidence of responsiveness to the bottom third. His abstract reports that the bottom fifth receives little or no weight, especially from Republican senators.
Finding POL-2.11
Peer-reviewed A systematic review of 1,163 estimates from 25 studies found a positive income gradient in responsiveness with wide variation. The predicted probability of an extreme pro-rich result is .59 in models that enter several income groups together and .08 in models run separately.
Finding POL-2.12
Peer-reviewed In the United States studies in the same review, both parties respond more to the rich than to the poor. Democrats overrepresent the poor relative to Republicans, with study-level probabilities of .27 against .12, and partisanship does not change the finding that the rich are overrepresented relative to the middle class.