I am really excited that our ( @j_wolak_ ) new paper “The Dynamic American Dream” is available at @AJPS_Editor. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajps.12522

The American Dream is the general belief that people can achieve success in life through hard work and effort. This is a key part of the American story and plays a central role in a lot of themes of campaigns and politics. Support for this idea is widespread.

The American Dream, however, is becoming less true. Inequality is rising and social mobility is declining. In this paper, we are interested in how these changes translate to Americans’ beliefs in the *attainability* of the American Dream.

We develop a new macro measure of Americans’ belief in the viability of the American Dream from 1973 to 2018 using Stimson’s algorithm.

We show that movement in belief in the American Dream responds to both long term movement in the actual viability of the Dream (social mobility, homeownership, and inequality) and levels of consumer sentiment.

These results suggest that the American public, as is often the case, responds reasonably well to changes in real world conditions. In the aggregate, the public opinion responds well to reality.

Additionally, if the American Dream is a unifying force in American politics, the declines in social mobility and increases in inequality make it more difficult for us to come together.

On a side note, this was also one of the better experiences with peer review I have had. @AJPS_Editor was quick in its decision and the reviewers were incredibly helpful. I am not sure I have ever had a more helpful set of reviews than these three.