Partisan economy.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Democrats vs. Republicans - Brief article

IN 2008, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama crowed that "when Democrats have been in charge of the economy, the economy has grown faster, and it's also been fairer in the sense that everybody benefits." The other team's record, he said, was not as strong: "When the Republicans have been in charge, the economy has grown slower, and there's been greater inequality."

Obama's claim was based on research by Princeton University political scientist Larry Bartels. But according to a recent study by State University of New York at Buffalo political scientist James Campbell, it's not true. In fact, he says, Democratic and Republican administrations correlate with roughly equal economic outcomes once you adjust for the impact of prior administrations.

Writing in the April 2011 issue of the applied politics journal The...