IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v35y1980i5p575-585.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Voter turnout and the benefits of voting

Author

Listed:
  • John Filer
  • Lawrence Kenny

Abstract

A model of voting behavior is developed that predicts that individuals vote if the absolute value of voting for or against a referendum exceeds the cost of voting. The results obtained from examining voting on city-county consolidation referenda and in New York state (1) provide support for the relatively untested prediction that turnout rises as the absolute value of the mean gains resulting from an electoral outcome increase and (2) augment the evidence that turnout rises as the probability of altering an electoral outcome increases and falls as the cost of voting rises. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv 1980

Suggested Citation

  • John Filer & Lawrence Kenny, 1980. "Voter turnout and the benefits of voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 35(5), pages 575-585, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:35:y:1980:i:5:p:575-585
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00140087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00140087
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00140087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Filer, John E & Kenny, Lawrence W, 1980. "Voter Reaction to City-County Consolidation Referenda," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 179-190, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luís Aguiar-Conraria & Pedro C. Magalhães & Christoph A. Vanberg, 2016. "Experimental evidence that quorum rules discourage turnout and promote election boycotts," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(4), pages 886-909, December.
    2. Christine Fauvelle-Aymar & Abel François, 2018. "Place of registration and place of residence: the non-linear detrimental impact of transportation cost on electoral participation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 405-440, September.
    3. Song Xi Chen & Denis H. Y. Leung & Jing Qin, 2008. "Improving semiparametric estimation by using surrogate data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 70(4), pages 803-823, September.
    4. François Facchini & Abel François, 2005. "Territorial captivity and voter participation in national election: a theoretical and empirical analysis," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00270739, HAL.
    5. J. Ferris & Soo-Bin Park & Stanley Winer, 2008. "Studying the role of political competition in the evolution of government size over long horizons," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 369-401, October.
    6. Stanley Winer & Lawrence Kenny & Bernard Grofman, 2014. "Explaining variation in the competitiveness of U.S. Senate elections, 1922–2004," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 471-497, December.
    7. Francesco Armillei & Enrico Cavallotti, 2021. "Concurrent elections and voting behaviour: evidence from an Italian referendum," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21164, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    8. Alexander James & Nathaly M. Rivera & Brock Smith, 2022. "Cash Transfer and Voter Turnout," Working Papers wp536, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    9. Garmann, Sebastian, 2016. "Concurrent elections and turnout: Causal estimates from a German quasi-experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 167-178.
    10. Huan Gong & Cynthia L. Rogers, 2014. "Does Voter Turnout Influence School Bond Elections?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(1), pages 247-262, July.
    11. Francesco Armillei & Enrico Cavallotti, 2021. "Concurrent elections and voting behaviour: evidence from an Italian referendum," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21164, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    12. Christine Fauvelle-Aymar & Abel François, 2015. "Mobilization, cost of voting and turnout: a natural randomized experiment with double elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 183-199, January.
    13. Fred Thompson, 1982. "Closeness counts in horseshoes and dancing ... and elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 305-316, January.
    14. Gary M. Pecquet & R. Morris Coats & Steven T. Yen, 1996. "Special Versus General Elections and Composition of the Voters: Evidence From Louisiana School Tax Elections," Public Finance Review, , vol. 24(2), pages 131-147, April.
    15. Gary Roseman & E. Stephenson, 2005. "The Effect of Voting Technology on Voter Turnout: Do Computers Scare the Elderly?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 39-47, April.
    16. Dostie, Benoit & Dupré, Ruth, 2012. "“The people's will”: Canadians and the 1898 referendum on alcohol prohibition," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 498-515.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Dur & Klaas Staal, 2003. "National Interference in Local Public Good Provision," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-074/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Scorsone, Eric, 2007. "School District and Municipal Reorganization: Research Findings & Policy Proposals," Staff Paper Series 6543, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Nora Gordon & Brian Knight, 2006. "The Causes of Political Integration: An Application to School Districts," NBER Working Papers 12047, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ali Cenap Yologlu, 2018. "Politics of Municipal Consolidation: The Case of Denizli," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, April.
    5. Björn Kauder, 2016. "Incorporation of municipalities and population growth: A propensity score matching approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(3), pages 539-554, August.
    6. Acuff, Christopher, 2022. "Beyond the City-County Divide: Examining Consolidation Referenda Since 2000," SocArXiv pb7ug, Center for Open Science.
    7. Brav, Alon & Cain, Matthew & Zytnick, Jonathon, 2022. "Retail shareholder participation in the proxy process: Monitoring, engagement, and voting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 492-522.
    8. Austin, D. Andrew, 1999. "Politics vs Economics: Evidence from Municipal Annexation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 501-532, May.
    9. Shin Kimura & Yoichi Hizen, 2021. "Does Inter-municipal Cooperation Lead to Municipal Amalgamation? Evidence from Japanese Municipal Referenda," Working Papers SDES-2021-2, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Feb 2021.
    10. Gordon, Nora & Knight, Brian, 2009. "A spatial merger estimator with an application to school district consolidation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 752-765, June.
    11. Lawrence Kenny & Adam Reinke, 2011. "The role of income in the formation of new cities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 75-88, October.
    12. Dur, Robert & Staal, Klaas, 2008. "Local public good provision, municipal consolidation, and national transfers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 160-173, March.
    13. John G. Matsusaka, 2005. "Direct Democracy Works," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 185-206, Spring.
    14. Jones Philip & Soguel Nils, 2010. "Fiscal Federalism at the Ballot Box: The Relevance of Expressive Voting," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(3), pages 469-488, December.
    15. Rodolfo Gonzalez & Stephen Mehay, 1987. "Municipal annexation and local monopoly power," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 245-255, January.
    16. Kahn, Matthew E & Matsusaka, John G, 1997. "Demand for Environmental Goods: Evidence from Voting Patterns on California Initiatives," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(1), pages 137-173, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:35:y:1980:i:5:p:575-585. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.