Publication Date
2009-08-14
Availability
Open access
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD)
Department
Economics (Business)
Date of Defense
July 2009
First Committee Member
Christopher Cotton - Committee Member
Second Committee Member
Luca Bossi - Committee Member
Third Committee Member
Luis Locay - Mentor
Fourth Committee Member
Carlos Seiglie - Outside Committee Member
Abstract
This dissertation contributes the literature by developing a new method of measuring political dominance combining the legislative and executive branches in bi-party political system and by investigating the effect of political dominance on economic performance using panel data for forty-six states of United States for the period 1937-1996. Economic performance is measured by the relative level of per-capita personal income and growth of per-capita personal income. This dissertation finds that political dominance has significant negative effects on the level of relative per-capita personal income and on the growth of per-capita personal income. Additionally, this paper modifies the two existing measures of political dominance using exclusively seat share of legislative branches or governors vote share and examines the short run effect of political dominance on economic performance using these modified measures. It finds that political dominance using exclusively seat share of legislative branches or governors vote share either overestimates or underestimates the effect of political dominance on economic performance.
Keywords
Political Dominance; Economic Performance
Recommended Citation
Ray, Rita, "Political Dominance and Economic Performance:The Case of the American States" (2009). Open Access Dissertations. 669.
https://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/669