Economic Bias and Ideology: Evidence from the General Social Survey

This paper examines the connection between political ideology and four distinct categories of economic bias: anti-market bias, make-work bias, anti-foreign bias, and pessimistic bias (Caplan, 2007). Self-identified Republicans and conservatives in the United States tend to have less biased beliefs about economics than their Democratic and liberal counterparts. That is, they are less prone to the anti-market bias and make-work bias as described by Caplan (2007). This result holds, even when controlling for a variety of demographic factors. A notable exception is in the area of international economics, where conservatives (but not necessarily Republicans) are more likely to exhibit anti-foreign bias. A fourth category of bias, pessimistic bias, does not appear to be strongly connected with either party identification or ideology.

Find article at The Journal of Private Enterprise.