Working Paper: NBER ID: w30021
Authors: W. Walker Hanlon
Abstract: This article develops a method for quantitatively tracking the agenda of the British Parliament—by which I mean the substantive topics on which Parliamentary debate was focused—from 1810-2005 using descriptions of 1.7 million Parliamentary debates from the Parliamentary Hansard. This provides a new tool for analyzing the evolution of the British political system across nearly two centuries. I describe and validate this new measure and then present an application that focuses on assessing the influence of the party in government on the Parliamentary agenda.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: H11; N4
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| government party (P16) | parliamentary agenda (D72) |
| elections (K16) | parliamentary agenda (D72) |
| economic downturns (F44) | parliamentary agenda (D72) |
| public opinion (D72) | parliamentary agenda (D72) |
| party identity (D72) | parliamentary agenda (D72) |
| Labour Party (J59) | worker-related issues (J81) |