Distributive Impact of Labour and Conservative Governments

Interesting data from Lane Kenworthy that seems to suggest that if you’re a Briton of below-average means you have pretty good reason to vote Labour:

Larry Bartels has made somewhat similar findings in the United States indicating that there are huge distributive implications for whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican. Economists have tended to be dubious that Bartels is identifying a real causal relationship, since the underlying mechanism isn’t totally clear, but the presence of similar patterns in similar societies should tend to increase our confidence that Bartels is on to something important.