Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the
country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby
International survey that I write about in the May issue of Econ
Journal Watch, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101.
Zogby researcher Zeljka Buturovic and I considered the 4,835
respondents' (all American adults) answers to eight survey questions
about basic economics. We also asked the respondents about their
political leanings: progressive/very liberal; liberal; moderate;
conservative; very conservative; and libertarian.
Rather than focusing on whether respondents answered a question
correctly, we instead looked at whether they answered incorrectly. A
response was counted as incorrect only if it was flatly unenlightened.
Consider one of the economic propositions in the December 2008
poll: "Restrictions on housing development make housing less
affordable." People were asked if they: 1) strongly agree; 2) somewhat
agree; 3) somewhat disagree; 4) strongly disagree; 5) are not sure.
Basic economics acknowledges that whatever redeeming features a
restriction may have, it increases the cost of production and exchange,
making goods and services less affordable. There may be exceptions to
the general case, but they would be atypical.
Therefore, we counted as incorrect responses of "somewhat
disagree" and "strongly disagree." This treatment gives leeway for
those who think the question is ambiguous or half right and half wrong.
They would likely answer "not sure," which we do not count as incorrect.
In this case, percentage of conservatives answering incorrectly
was 22.3%, very conservatives 17.6% and libertarians 15.7%. But the
percentage of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly was 67.6%
and liberals 60.1%. The pattern was not an anomaly.
The other questions were: 1) Mandatory licensing of professional
services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer:
disagree). 2) Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it
was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer: disagree). 3) Rent control
leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer: disagree). 4) A
company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened
answer: agree). 5) Third World workers working for American companies
overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer: agree). 6) Free
trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree). 7) Minimum
wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree).
How did the six ideological groups do overall? Here they are, best
to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8:
Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67;
Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.26.
Americans in the first three categories do reasonably well. But
the left has trouble squaring economic thinking with their political
psychology, morals and aesthetics.
To be sure, none of the eight questions specifically challenge the
political sensibilities of conservatives and libertarians. Still, not
all of the eight questions are tied directly to left-wing concerns
about inequality and redistribution. In particular, the questions about
mandatory licensing, the standard of living, the definition of
monopoly, and free trade do not specifically challenge leftist
sensibilities.
Yet on every question the left did much worse. On the monopoly
question, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering
incorrectly (31%) was more than twice that of conservatives (13%) and
more than four times that of libertarians (7%). On the question about
living standards, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering
incorrectly (61%) was more than four times that of conservatives (13%)
and almost three times that of libertarians (21%).
The survey also asked about party affiliation. Those responding
Democratic averaged 4.59 incorrect answers. Republicans averaged 1.61
incorrect, and Libertarians 1.26 incorrect.
Adam Smith described political economy as "a branch of the science
of a statesman or legislator." Governmental power joined with
wrongheadedness is something terrible, but all too common. Realizing
that many of our leaders and their constituents are economically
unenlightened sheds light on the troubles that surround us.
Mr. Klein is a professor of economics
at George Mason University. This op-ed is based on an article published
in the May 2010 issue of the journal he edits, Econ Journal Watch, a
project sponsored by the American Institute for Economic Research. The
article is at: http://econjwatch.org/articles/economic-enlightenment-in-relation-to-college-going-ideology-and-other-variables-a-zogby-survey-of-americans
