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THE BREAD AND PEACE MODEL: 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POSTMORTEM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2013

Douglas A. Hibbs*
Affiliation:
Miami Beach, Florida

Extract

President Obama received approximately 51.5% of the two-party vote in the 2012 election. The last Bread and Peace Model forecast of Obama's vote share, based on advance estimates of 2012:quarter 3 personal income posted on October 26, 2012, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), was 46.6%—lower than the 47.5% forecast appearing in the October issue of PS, which was based on July 27, 2012, BEA data. The Bread and Peace Model therefore underpredicted Obama's vote by 4 to 5 percentage points, equivalent to around 2 model standard errors. The president's vote therefore benefited from a +2-sigma composite shock to Bread and Peace Model fundamentals. Figure 1 shows actual and predicted values for 2012 in perspective of incumbent vote shares at all presidential elections 1952–2012.

Type
Features Symposium: Recap: Forecasting the 2012 Election
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013

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