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To vote, or not to vote? Electoral campaigns and the spread of COVID-19

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  • Cipullo, Davide
  • Le Moglie, Marco

Abstract

The possibility to run fair electoral campaigns is necessary for the legitimization of modern democracies through elections. Yet, during a pandemic, the risk that electoral campaigns would enhance the spread of the disease is substantive. In this paper, we estimate the causal impact of electoral campaigns on the spread of COVID-19. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in the schedule of local elections across Italy, we show that the electoral campaign preceding this latter led to a significant worsening of the epidemiological situation related to the disease. Our results strongly highlight the importance of undertaking stringent measures along the entire electoral process to minimize its epidemiological consequences.

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  • Cipullo, Davide & Le Moglie, Marco, 2022. "To vote, or not to vote? Electoral campaigns and the spread of COVID-19," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0176268021001002
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102118
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    Cited by:

    1. Bordignon, Massimo & Franzoni, Federico & Gamalerio, Matteo, 2024. "Is Populism reversible? Evidence from Italian local elections during the pandemic," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza & Gholipour, Hassan F., 2023. "COVID-19 fatalities and internal conflict: Does government economic support matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Massimo Bordignon & Federico Franzoni & Matteo Gamalerio, 2023. "Is Populism reversible? Evidence from Italian local elections during the pandemic," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def124, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    4. Andreea Stancea & Aurelian Muntean, 2024. "Keep the (social) distance! Turnout and risk perception during health crisis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Alabrese, Eleanora & Liberini, Federica & Porcelli, Francesco & Redoano, Michela & Russo, Antonio, 2023. "Electoral Accountability and Local Support for National Policies," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1448, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Voting; Elections; Difference-in-differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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