By Aeimit Lakdawala, Associate Professor of Economics, Wake Forest University

Republican-leaning economists tend to predict stronger economic growth when a Republican is president than Democrats do, and because of this partisan optimism, their forecasts end up being less accurate.

I’m an economist, and my colleagues and I found this by analyzing nearly 40 years of responses to The Wall Street Journal’s Economic Forecasting Survey. Unlike most such surveys, the Journal publishes each forecaster’s name, allowing us to link their predictions to their political affiliations.

The respondents were professional economists at major banks, consulting firms, and universities whose forecasts help guide financial markets and business decisions. Out of more than 300 economists in our sample, we cou

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