ECONOMIC SELF-INTEREST AND THE VOTE: Evidence and Meaning.

The issue of personal economic self-Interest - people responding politically to changes in their financial well-being-has been a central focus In the economic voting literature. In a recent article, Kramer (1983) contended that people may be acting in a personally self- interested manner despite findings to the contrary from survey research analyses. In another article, Sears and Lau (1983) argued that findings of economic self-Interest from survey data may be artifactual and that self-Interested behavior may be even weaker than previously thought. In this paper I review the literature on economic self-f nterest and attempt to deter- mine to what extent people do act on the basis of their financial well-being and under what conditions this Is most likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]