Following the Ticker: The Political Origins and Consequences of Stock Market Perceptions

By: Ian G. Anson

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Synopsis: Drawing on a wide variety of empirical methodologies, including large-scale survey analysis, survey experiments, and content analyses, Following the Ticker explores the complex relationship between stock market performance and political judgments through distinctive patterns of coverage in American news media. Building an eclectic theory that explores the interplay between media agenda-setting and partisan motivated reasoning, author Ian G. Anson helps to explain why the stock market increasingly occupies the minds of Americans when they evaluate the performance of incumbent presidents. In doing so, Following the Ticker contributes to a growing literature exploring the links between public opinion and economic inequality in American society. Because "the stock market is not the economy," the increasing salience of the stock market as a source of political judgments reflects a worrying development for classic models of democratic accountability.