TY  - JOUR
AU  - Blinder,Alan S.
AU  - Holtz-Eakin,Douglas
TI  - Public Opinion and the Balanced Budget
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 1234
PY  - 1984
Y2  - September 1984
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1234
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1234.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alan S. Blinder
Department of Economics
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
Tel: 609/258-3358
Fax: 609/258-5398
E-Mail: blinder@princeton.edu

Douglas Holtz-Eakin
American Action Forum
1401 New York Ave, NW
Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20005
E-Mail: dholtzeakin@americanactionforum.org
AB  - While most Americans have long favored a balanced federal budget , not all do. This paper uses cross-sectional differences among respondents to two public opinion polls to try to discriminate among competing hypotheses about why Americans want the budget balanced. Logit models are fit to data from two different public opinion polls : a Gallup poll and a CBS/New York Times poll conducted , respectively, in March and April of 1980, a time when the proposed balanced budget amendment to the Constitution was very much in the news. In each case , a large majority favored a balanced budget requirement. However, they favor it for a smorgasbord of reasons and at unclear price. It appears that political affiliation, ideology and personal circumstances are far less important determinants of the choice than economic rationales.
ER  -