This book estimates the effects of economic conditions on the behavior of individual voters and on the outcomes of 42 elections in 15 countries. The conventional wisdom that poor economic conditions hurt governing parties is too simplistic. It does not hold for junior parties in coalition governments, who frequently gain at the expense of larger parties. It also does not hold in countries where responsibility for economic policy is unclear (more often than not). The extent to which the economy affects election outcomes depends strongly on the degree of electoral competition between parties.