The Presidential Election and Economics
As Tuesday’s presidential election draws close, we continue to hear the debate about whether the current economy favors Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, and who has the better economic plan.
With the election in mind, here’s a roundup of some of the recent work we’ve done on the subject of presidents, politics and the economy. First, how much power does a president, and the president’s political party, really have over the performance of the economy?
“The forces that affect the economy act over long periods of time, and in many cases there is not much that a president can do, no matter his or her economic agenda,” wrote Polina Vlasenko, senior research fellow at AIER, earlier this year in this blog. In the piece, she points to deep economic undercurrents over which a president has little control.
Vlasenko also wrote in September about the misconception that the election of a new president tends to cause a recession.
We have also written about how job creation fares when either party controls the White House. And here’s a humorous piece about how financial markets tend to fare better under left-handed presidents.
Finally, senior research fellow Max Gulker wrote this piece about Clinton and Trump’s plans to promote small business.
