Dear all,
We hope you can join us this Wednesday, March 27, 2013 for the Applied
Statistics Workshop in CGIS Knafel 354. Anthony
Fowler<http://www.gov.harvard.edu/people/anthony-fowler>and Andrew
B. Hall <http://www.andrewbenjaminhall.com/>, Ph.D. Candidates from the
Department of Government at Harvard University, will give a presentation
entitled "Do Legislators Cater to the Priorities of Their Constituents?". A
light lunch will be served at 12 pm and the talk will begin at 12.15.
Abstract:
Republican and Democratic legislators vote
differently on a large number
of bills even when representing constituents of identical preferences.
Because constituencies care about some issues more than others,
representatives may give short shrift to the district's preferences on some
topics while carefully mirroring them on others. The more a district cares
about an issue, the more loyally we should see its legislators voting. As a
consequence, we should expect the partisan gap in representation -- the
difference in voting behavior between a Democrat and a Republican
representing the same constituents -- to shrink on issues of greater
concern to the district. We test this hypothesis in eight issue areas:
agriculture, civil rights, defense, education, energy, public
transportation, senior citizens' issues, and welfare. Contrary to
expectation, we find little evidence that representational quality improves
when constituents have strong personal interests. Across all issues
examined, the representational gap between the parties is massive and does
not shrink meaningfully in especially-interested districts.
An up-to-date schedule for the workshop is available at
http://events.iq.harvard.edu/events/node/1208.
Best,
Konstantin
--
Konstantin Kashin
Ph.D. Candidate in Government
Harvard University
Mobile: 978-844-0538
E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu
Site:
http://www.konstantinkashin.com/<http://people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ekkashi…
--
Konstantin Kashin
Ph.D. Candidate in Government
Harvard University
Mobile: 978-844-0538
E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu
Site: