This paper advances existing research on economic voting in multi-level states by adopting the region as the level of analysis. Taking the differences in the reward/punishment of regional and central government incumbents as the main dependent variable, the paper examines the influence of the objective economic conditions in the region and in the rest of the country. The baseline hypothesis is that the greater the divergence of economic conditions between the two levels, the higher the differences in support for the incumbent between the two levels. In addition, the paper examines the influence of three regional-level variables that could condition this relationship: i) the structure of regional economy ii) the clarity of responsibility between regional and central government; ii) the presence of a distinct identity in the region.
