Replication Data for: Geographic Boundaries and Local Economic Conditions Matter for Views of the Economy

The link between objective facts and politically-relevant beliefs is an essential mechanism for democratic accountability. Yet the bulk of empirical work on this topic measures objective facts at whatever geographic units are readily available. We investigate the implications of these largely arbitrary choices for predicting individual-level opinions. We show that varying the geographic resolution -- namely aggregating economic data to different geographic units -- influences the strength of the relationship between economic evaluations and local economic conditions. Finding that unemployment claims are the best predictor of economic evaluations, especially when aggregated at the commuting zone or media market level, we underscore the importance of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). Our methods provide an example of how applied scholars might investigate the importance of geography in their own research going forward.客观事实与政治相关信念之间的关联，是民主问责制的核心运行机制。然而该主题下的绝大多数实证研究，均采用随手可得的任意地理单元来测度客观事实。本研究旨在探究这些近乎随意的单元选择，在预测个体层面观点时所产生的影响。研究表明，改变地理分辨率——即按照不同地理单元聚合经济数据——会显著影响经济评价与地方经济状况之间关联的强度。本研究发现，失业申领数据是经济评价的最佳预测因子，尤其当数据按通勤区或媒体市场区域聚合时，借此我们着重强调了可修改区域单元问题（modifiable areal unit problem, MAUP）的重要性。我们的研究方法可为应用领域学者后续在自身研究中探究地理因素的影响提供参考范式。