The International Economy and Presidential Approval

There is widespread consensus that the state of the economy matters for presidents' standing in public opinion. To this point, however, the economy that has been taken to influence presidential approval has been exclusively domestic. We show that the domestic economy continued to matter in the 1990s, but so too did America's international economic performance, as measured by the national trade balance and inflation in the price of imported goods. We further show that not all trading partners are equal in their implications for the president's public standing. Disadvantageous trade relations with Canada have no effect on the president's approval ratings, while similar relations with Japan depress them significantly. We explain this difference by patterns of media coverage, showing that the volume of media coverage of trade relations with the two countries has contrasting effects on presidential approval ratings.