The enormous Nazi voting literature rarely builds on modern statistical or economic research. By adding these approaches, we find that the most widely accepted existing theories of this era cannot distinguish the Weimar elections from almost any others in any country. Via a retrospective voting account, we show that voters most hurt by the depression, and most likely to oppose the government, fall into separate groups with divergent interests. This explains why some turned to the Nazis and others turned away. The consequences of Hitler's election were extraordinary, but the voting behavior that led to it was not.
Gary King, Ori Rosen, and Martin Tanner. 2006. “Ecological Inference.” In The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, edited by Larry Blume and Steven N. Durlauf, 2nd ed. London: Palgrave.Abstract
Dictionary entry on the definition of "ecological inference," and a brief summary of the history of ecological inference research.
Ecological Inference: New Methodological Strategies brings together a diverse group of scholars to survey the latest strategies for solving ecological inference problems in various fields. The last half decade has witnessed an explosion of research in ecological inference – the attempt to infer individual behavior from aggregate data. The uncertainties and the information lost in aggregation make ecological inference one of the most difficult areas of statistical inference, but such inferences are required in many academic fields, as well as by legislatures and the courts in redistricting, by businesses in marketing research, and by governments in policy analysis.
Gary King, Ori Rosen, and Martin Tanner. 2004. “Information in Ecological Inference: An Introduction.” In Ecological Inference: New Methodological Strategies, edited by Gary King, Ori Rosen, and Martin Tanner. New York: Cambridge University Press.Chapter PDF
Gary King, Ori Rosen, and Martin Tanner. 2004. “Information in Ecological Inference: An Introduction.” In Ecological Inference: New Methodological Strategies, edited by Gary King, Ori Rosen, and Martin Tanner. New York: Cambridge University Press.Chapter PDF