Pastine, Ivan and Pastine, Tuvana and Redmond, Paul (2012) Incumbent-Quality Advantage and Counterfactual Electoral Stagnation in the U.S. Senate. Working Paper. National University of Ireland Maynooth. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper presents a simple statistical exercise to provide a benchmark for the degree of electoral stagnation without direct officeholder benefits or challenger scare-off effects. Here electoral stagnation arises solely due to incumbent-quality advantage where the higher quality candidate wins the election. The simulation is calibrated using the observed drop-out rates in the U.S. Senate. From 1946 to 2010, the observed incumbent reelection rate is 81.7 percent; the benchmark with incumbent-quality advantage alone is able to generate a reelection rate of 78.2 percent. In the sub-sample from 1946 to 1978, the reelection rate from the simulation is almost identical to the observed. The rates diverge in the second part of the sub-sample from 1980 to 2010, possibly indicating an increase in electoral stagnation due to incumbency advantage arising for reasons other than incumbent-quality advantage.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Keywords:	Incumbent-Quality Advantage; Counterfactual Electoral Stagnation; U.S. Senate;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Finance and Accounting
Item ID:	3638
Depositing User:	Tuvana Pastine
Date Deposited:	08 May 2012 08:46
Publisher:	National University of Ireland Maynooth
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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