Cutpoint-Adjusted Interest Group Ratings

While it is very common for Congressional researchers to useinterest group ratings as measures of legislator policy preferences,this paper argues that the manner in which such ratings arecalculated implies that they may poorly approximate the underlyinglegislator preferences on which they are based. In light ofthis, the paper develops a technique designed to adjust interestgroup ratings so that they more closely correlate with legislatorpreferences. It argues based on Monte Carlo simulations thatthe technique produces adjusted ratings that improve on unadjustedratings, and it applies the adjustment technique to historicalratings published by the Americans for Democratic Action.