This article empirically investigates the effects of macroeconomic variables on the popularity of the New Zealand government by testing various popularity functions for the period 1970-1981. The results unambiguously show that the existence of this important politico-economic relationship cannot be doubted. In particular, the empirical results suggest that New Zealand voters are (1) forward-looking rather than backward-looking, (2) capable of comparing the actual macroeconomic condition with some notion of a variable “normal” performance, and (3) well aware of the openness of their economy.
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