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What happens in California doesn't stay in California. As the world's fifth-largest economy, the Golden State is an entertainment, technology, and agriculture colossus that is often on the cutting edge of policies around key issues like immigration and artificial intelligence.

How Golden State residents perceive these and other policy-relevant topics matters — for governments, business leaders, and consumers. In response, the ��ɫApp Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) has started a quarterly survey of Californians to gauge their views on some of the most pressing state, local, and federal matters.

— part of SIEPR’s California Policy Research Initiative (CAPRI) — is modeled after leading national polls. Similar to the University of Michigan’s closely watched monthly measure of consumer confidence, the California Economic Survey sheds light on how California residents’ views on timely issues relative to the rest of the country.

“Our California Economic Survey is a natural extension of SIEPR’s mission to advance effective policymaking through evidence,” says Neale Mahoney, the Trione Director at SIEPR and faculty director of CAPRI. “Given California’s track record of policy innovation, measuring the views of its constituents about the economy and government is critical to understanding what’s working and what isn’t.”

The poll of 1,500 California residents was conducted by YouGov in December before President Donald Trump took office and prior to the devastation of Southern California wildfires. The December poll establishes a baseline against which future survey results can be measured and compared Californians’ responses against results of several national polls. The next survey, which will be conducted in March, will account for changes in federal policies, the impact of the fires and feelings about the state’s fire insurance market.

Among the California Economic Survey’s inaugural findings:

• At the end of 2024, Californians felt more optimistic about the economy and government compared to the nation as a whole. For example, 38 percent of Golden State residents believed the U.S. government was on the right track, surpassing the national figure of 26 percent.
• Californians said they are less concerned about immigration than the U.S. overall. While 17 percent of Americans nationally said in December that they consider illegal immigration to be among the country’s most pressing issues, only 7 percent of Californians think so.
•  Californians agree with the rest of the country that inflation and housing costs are the top two concerns. But Californians rank homelessness and climate change higher on their list of policy priorities than other Americans.
• On artificial intelligence, 33 percent of Californians said they believe that AI will have a positive impact, while only 10 percent of Americans nationally believe that.

“Using these results as a benchmark, the California Economic Survey gives us an opportunity to monitor significant economic and political trends,” Mahoney says.

One issue is how consumer sentiment tracks along partisan lines. Mahoney and fellow researcher Ryan Cummings , for example, that Republicans and Democrats are more likely to feel good about the economy when their party controls the White House (and, conversely, feel worse about the economy when the opposing party holds the presidency.) But Republicans’ biases, Mahoney and Cummings find, are much stronger than those of Democrats.

Future surveys may show whether this phenomenon also applies to California voters, the majority of whom voted along Democrat lines in the November election, Mahoney says.

“Understanding the views of Californians — whether they are influenced by politics or economic concerns — should be front of mind for policymakers as they figure out what issues to prioritize and how to address them,” Mahoney says. “These views are also vital to business leaders and to California consumers.”

The survey is part of SIEPR’s broader effort to study and inform state and local government policymaking within CAPRI. The initiative works closely with government agencies to measure the effectiveness of policies around, for example, taxes, housing and homelessness, artificial intelligence, and climate change. CAPRI also helps prepare the state’s future leaders through opportunities for ��ɫApp students to conduct research and engage directly with policymakers.

“We see the California Economic Survey as an indispensable tool both for informing our research and shaping the future of economic policy,” says Preeti Hehmeyer, CAPRI’s managing director.  “Our mission also happens to be deeply personal: SIEPR’s home has been, and will always be, in California.”

More details of the survey, including figures and survey questions, can be found .