The Economic Consequences of Elections

"It is well known that income inequality in the United States has been on the rise for about 30 years now—an unsettling development that has finally touched the public consciousness. But Professor Bartels unearths a stunning statistical regularity: Over the entire 60-year period, income inequality trended substantially upward under Republican presidents but slightly downward under Democrats, thus accounting for the widening income gaps over all. And the bad news for America’s poor is that Republicans have won five of the seven elections going back to 1980."

Alan S. Blinder in The New York Times looks to Larry M. Bartels's new book, Unequal Democracy, to see which political party has had a more successful economic record.

But Louis Uchitelle, also in The New York Times, cautions against an overemphasis on Gross Domestic Product.