Discussion
With less than ten days remaining, assume you are the manager of one of the three campaigns (Democrat, Republican, or independent). You realize that your resources are limited and want to know the five states and five congressional districts you should put more resources in and the five states and five congressional districts where you should avoid spending your time and resources. As a diligent Regis University economics student, you realize you could use the FiveThirtyEight elasticity scores. And you quickly pull up the elasticities below. Though they are for 2018, you decide to use them as guidelines. Answer the following questions.
What is the definition of FiveThirtyEight Elasticity scores?
How can you use them to allocate your resources?
Choose the five states and, using the elasticity scores decide whether you should put more effort into changing the political environment and why. Also, discuss the states you would not put effort into and why.
How do these elasticities relate to the class material?
Elasticity scores by state
Updated for 2018
STATE ELASTICITY SCORE STATE ELASTICITY SCORE
Alaska 1.16 Illinois 1.01
Rhode Island 1.15 Arkansas 1.00
New Hampshire 1.15 Pennsylvania 1.00
Massachusetts 1.15 Oregon 1.00
Maine 1.13 Kansas 1.00
Vermont 1.12 Washington 1.00
Idaho 1.12 Indiana 0.99
Wyoming 1.08 Connecticut 0.99
Nevada 1.08 Tennessee 0.98
Iowa 1.08 North Carolina 0.98
Wisconsin 1.07 North Dakota 0.98
Colorado 1.07 New York 0.97
Hawaii 1.07 South Carolina 0.97
Montana 1.07 Maryland 0.96
Michigan 1.07 Louisiana 0.96
Utah 1.06 Missouri 0.95
Arizona 1.05 Virginia 0.94
West Virginia 1.04 California 0.94
Texas 1.03 Oklahoma 0.94
Florida 1.03 Kentucky 0.94
Minnesota 1.03 Delaware 0.93
Ohio 1.02 Mississippi 0.92
New Mexico 1.02 Georgia 0.90
South Dakota 1.01 Alabama 0.89
Nebraska 1.01 Washington, D.C. 0.80
New Jersey 1.01
Elasticity score by congressional district
The 25 most and least elastic House districts in 2018
Most elastic Least elastic
DISTRICT ELASTICITY DISTRICT ELASTICITY
Michigan 5th 1.24 California 5th 0.83
Illinois 8th 1.22 Illinois 1st 0.83
Nevada 4th 1.22 New York 7th 0.82
Massachusetts 1st 1.22 Virginia 8th 0.82
Massachusetts 6th 1.21 California 15th 0.82
Massachusetts 2nd 1.21 California 28th 0.82
New York 21st 1.21 Georgia 10th 0.81
Florida 26th 1.20 Georgia 13th 0.81
Massachusetts 9th 1.20 Washington 7th 0.81
Florida 25th 1.20 California 37th 0.81
Minnesota 7th 1.19 Mississippi 3rd 0.80
New Hampshire 1st 1.19 New York 9th 0.80
Massachusetts 4th 1.18 New York 5th 0.79
California 26th 1.18 California 44th 0.79
Massachusetts 3rd 1.18 California 13th 0.79
Rhode Island 1st 1.17 Alabama 3rd 0.79
Illinois 12th 1.17 Alabama 6th 0.78
Texas 33rd 1.17 New York 13th 0.77
Iowa 2nd 1.17 Missouri 4th 0.77
Washington 5th 1.17 New York 15th 0.77
Utah 2nd 1.16 California 2nd 0.76
Alaska at large 1.16 New York 8th 0.74
Texas 29th 1.15 New York 14th 0.73
Maine 1st 1.15 Illinois 7th 0.72
Oregon 2nd 1.15 Pennsylvania 3rd 0.72
