Bimodal issues, the median voter model, Legislator's ideology, and abortion

Medoff, Marshall H.; Dennis, Christopher; Bishin, Benjamin G.

doi:10.1007/bf02298765

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In addition, legislators are elected based on voter preferences on many dimensions. When the distribution of preferences is close to 50% on each side of a bi-modal issue, the political cost to any abortion policy is roughly similar; legislators will be elected on other characteristics and may vote on abortion issues in a way that reflects their own preferences rather than those of their constituents (Medoff et al 1995). This can make the passage of abortion laws contingent on the personal preferences of legislators elected based on other characteristics.…”

Section: Abortion Legislation As An Instrument For Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend

et al. 2009

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We estimate the effect of fertility on female labor force participation in a panel of countries using abortion legislation as an instrument for fertility. We find that removing legal restrictions on abortion significantly reduces fertility and estimate that, on average, a birth reduces a woman's labor supply by almost 2 years during her reproductive life. Our results imply that behavioral change, in the form of increased female labor supply, contributes significantly to economic growth during the demographic transition when fertility declines.

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Section: Abortion Legislation As An Instrument For Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend

et al. 2009

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“…If voter preferences for abortion legislation were unimodal, then X i IDR and X i DR in equation (3) would mirror the position and characteristics of the median voter. However, Medoff, Dennis and Bishin (1995) argue that abortion has the characteristics of a bimodal issue. Proponents and opponents have intense, inflexible and uncompromising opinions about abortion based on strong moral and/or civil liberties beliefs.…”

Section: Determinants and Impact Of State Abortion Restrictions 483mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Determinants and Impact of State Abortion Restrictions

Medoff

2002

American J Econ Sociol

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This paper shows that a state's abortion policy is determined by the strength of interest advocacy groups and political forces. The greater the membership in the National Abortion Rights Action League, the percentage of female state legislators and the percentage of Democratic female legislators, the less restrictive a state's abortion policy. The greater a state's population that are Roman Catholics, the more restrictive a state's abortion policy. The paper also estimates the impact abortion restrictions have on a state's abortion rate. The empirical results show that abortion restrictions have no statistically significant impact on a state's abortion rate. A state's abortion restrictions do not significantly increase out-of-state abortions.

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“…At least one study specifically looks at whether it holds on bimodal issue. Medoff, Dennis, and Bishin (1995) find evidence that, on bimodal issues, legislators vote consistently with their ideology rather than with constituent opinion or demographics. This result, however, is most appropriate for issues which are both bimodal and dichotomous.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 82%

The Public Commodities Problem

Widerquist

2000

SSRN Journal

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When it becomes necessary to do a thing the whole heart and soul should go into the measure. -Thomas PaineIf you're gon'a love me, love me right. -Jerry Lee LewisThings that are not worth doing, are not worth doing well. -Harry JohnsonOne person's public good is another's public bad and so, perhaps, the public goods problem could be more generally described as the public commodities problem, 1 in which disagreement about the basic goal of a spending program complicates the decision of how much to spend to achieve that goal. Although public goods spending is a continuous variable, it often has a binary goal such as win a war, deter crime, provide transportation, or reduce poverty. To decide how much spending is necessary, society must answer both a normative and a positive question: Normatively, should the government adopt the goal of this spending program? Positively, given this spending program's goal, what is the optimal level of spending? 2 If the answer to the first question is yes, it may be desirable that the actual level of spending be set at the level that would be optimal given that goal, but spending may not be set at that level. This paper uses the median voter theorem to demonstrate that those who do not believe the government should pursue the goal and those who believe that the government can achieve the goal with relatively less spending can form a coalition to keep spending at a level below which most supporters (and possibly most citizens) believe is objectively the optimal amount of spending. Thus, even if voters have rational expectations about the amount necessary to achieve a goal, disagreement about whether or not to pursue the goal can cause underfunding bias.The median voter theorem has been used as a tool to examine the level of spending on public goods since developed and refined by Bowen (1944) and Black (1958) based on the original work by Hotelling (1929). It can be stated rather simply: on one dimensional issue, about which voters have single-peaked preferences, the median voter's position cannot lose under simple majority rule. 3 As long as all citizens vote, this result is strategy proof and holds true for any distribution of preferences (Mueller 1989, Ching 1997. There has been considerable discussion about if and when the median voter theorem holds, and if representatives' actions reflect the opinions of the median voter. 4 But that debate is not important for this paper, the problems in this paper can exist whether representatives vote according to their own ideology or their constituents' wishes.

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Bimodal issues, the median voter model, Legislator's ideology, and abortion

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend

Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend

The Determinants and Impact of State Abortion Restrictions

The Public Commodities Problem

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