Economists prefer Obama on energy and environment policy

Dilbert author Scott Adams commissioned a survey of 500 economists, asking them which candidate they prefer on a variety of issues. The results are … not very interesting.

Short story: economists prefer Obama. Medium story: Democratic economists prefer Obama, Republican economists prefer McCain, and independents swing Obama (46-39 percent).

Breakdown of the 500, drawn from the nonpartisan American Economic Association:

48% Democrats
17% Republicans
27% Independents
3% Libertarian
5% Other or not registered

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86% of the economists surveyed are male, and 65% work in the field of academia or education. The rest are spread across various industries or not working.

On the issues beloved of Grist readers (O=Obama, M=McCain, ND=no difference):

Energy: O-61 percent, M-22 percent, ND-17 percent

Encouraging Technology/innovation: O-43 percent, M-23 percent, ND-34 percent

Environmental policy: O-72 percent, M-9 percent, ND-19 percent

Lessons I draw from this:

1. Most economists are Democrats. Hm.
2. Economists have no secret magical reality-decoder ring; they vote their party preferences like everyone else.
3. I’ll blog any ol’ thing.