RETRACTED: Common Retrospective Economic Perception Items Are Noisy But Broadly Reliable

Retrospective economic perception items dominate economic voting research. Though they are well-used, they are not well-validated. In this short note, I assess the items’ test-retest reliability for the first time. I make three contributions. First, I show that the items are broadly reliable. Second, I show that personal items are more reliable than national ones. Third, I show that the differences in reliability I find have little effect on model outputs. Thus, though these items have their problems, reliability is likely not one of them.