IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_4999.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Socio-Economic Heterogeneity and Electoral Turnout: An Aggregate Analysis with Precinct-Level Data

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgio Bellettini
  • Carlotta Berti Ceroni
  • Chiara Monfardini

Abstract

In this paper we perform an empirical analysis to investigate the impact of socio-economic heterogeneity on electoral turnout. We exploit a unique dataset on local elections in an Italian municipality, which merges information on socio-economic characteristics of about 370.000 individuals with turnout data at the precinct level in 2004 and 2009. Controlling for unobserved precinct-specific fixed effects, we find that electoral turnout is not affected by income inequality. We also document a negative effect on electoral participation of the share of immigrants, population density, and the share of singles. These results suggest that increased ethnic heterogeneity and reduced social pressure tend to depress turnout.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Bellettini & Carlotta Berti Ceroni & Chiara Monfardini, 2014. "Socio-Economic Heterogeneity and Electoral Turnout: An Aggregate Analysis with Precinct-Level Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 4999, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_4999
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp4999.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kelly Shue & Erzo F. P. Luttmer, 2009. "Who Misvotes? The Effect of Differential Cognition Costs on Election Outcomes," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 229-257, February.
    2. Patricia Funk, 2010. "Social Incentives and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the Swiss Mail Ballot System," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(5), pages 1077-1103, September.
    3. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2000. "Participation in Heterogeneous Communities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 847-904.
    4. Mueller, Dennis C. & Stratmann, Thomas, 2003. "The economic effects of democratic participation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2129-2155, September.
    5. Goodin, Robert & Dryzek, John, 1980. "Rational Participation: The Politics of Relative Power," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-292, July.
    6. Daniel Horn, 2011. "GINI DP 16: Income Inequality and Voter Turnout," GINI Discussion Papers 16, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    7. Vincent Mahler, 2002. "Exploring the Subnational Dimension of Income Inequality: An Analysis of the Relationship between Inequality and Electoral Turnout in the Developed Countries," LIS Working papers 292, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. Meltzer, Allan H & Richard, Scott F, 1981. "A Rational Theory of the Size of Government," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 914-927, October.
    9. Kenneth L. Sokoloff & Stanley L. Engerman, 2000. "Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 217-232, Summer.
    10. Eiji Yamamura, 2011. "Effects of social norms and fractionalization on voting behaviour in Japan," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(11), pages 1385-1398.
    11. Vanesa Estrada-Correa & Martin Johnson, 2012. "Foreclosure Depresses Voter Turnout: Neighborhood Disruption and the 2008 Presidential Election in C alifornia," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 93(3), pages 559-576, September.
    12. Frederick Solt, 2008. "Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 48-60, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mathew Y. H. Wong & Stan Hok-Wui Wong, 2022. "Income Inequality and Political Participation: A District-Level Analysis of Hong Kong Elections," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 959-977, August.
    2. Lorenzo Cicatiello & Salvatore Ercolano & Giuseppe Gaeta, 2015. "Income distribution and political participation: a multilevel analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(2), pages 447-479, May.
    3. Vladimir Gimpelson & Daniel Treisman, 2018. "Misperceiving inequality," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 27-54, March.
    4. Kellermann, Kim Leonie, 2017. "Political participation and party capture in a dualized economy: A game theory approach," CIW Discussion Papers 4/2017, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    5. Paul Hufe & Andreas Peichl, 2020. "Beyond Equal Rights: Equality of Opportunity in Political Participation," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 477-511, September.
    6. Bharatee Bhusana Dash & J. Stephen Ferris & Marcel-Cristian Voia, 2023. "Inequality, transaction costs and voter turnout: evidence from Canadian provinces and Indian states," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 194(3), pages 325-346, March.
    7. Ivica Petrikova, 2022. "The Effects of Local-Level Economic Inequality on Social Capital: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2850-2877, December.
    8. Nadia Fiorino & Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2017. "Supra National, National and Regional Dimensions of Voter Turnout in European Parliament Elections," JRC Research Reports JRC108755, Joint Research Centre.
    9. Patricia Justino & Ana Arjona & Juan Camilo Cárdenas & Ana María Ibáñez & Julián Arteaga, 2019. "On the political and social consequences of economic inequality: Civic engagement in Colombia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-76, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Ana Arjona & Juan Camilo Cárdenas & Ana María Ibáñez & Patricia Justino & Julián Arteaga, 2019. "Desigualdad económica y participación en organizaciones sociales en Colombia," Documentos CEDE 17412, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Bharatee Bhusana DASH & Stephen FERRIS & Marcel-Cristian VOIA, 2022. "Inequality, Transaction Costs and Voter Turnout: evidence from Canadian Provinces and Indian States," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2953, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    12. Lourdes ROJAS RUBIO, 2022. "Inequality, Corruption and Support for Democracy," THEMA Working Papers 2022-20, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    13. Chong, Alberto & Gradstein, Mark, 2018. "Imposed institutions and preferences for redistribution §," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 127-156, February.
    14. Frederick Solt, 2009. "Standardizing the World Income Inequality Database," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(2), pages 231-242, June.
    15. Rougier, Eric, 2016. "“Fire in Cairo”: Authoritarian–Redistributive Social Contracts, Structural Change, and the Arab Spring," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 148-171.
    16. Keefer, Philip & Scartascini, Carlos & Vlaicu, Razvan, 2022. "Demand-side determinants of public spending allocations: Voter trust, risk and time preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    17. Alberto Alesina & Edward Glaeser & Bruce Sacerdote, 2001. "Why Doesn't The US Have a European-Style Welfare State?," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1933, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    18. Aidt, T.S. & Eterovic, D.S., 2007. "Give and Take: Political Competition, Participation and Public Finance in 20th Century Latin America," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0714, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Christian Bredemeier, 2014. "Imperfect information and the Meltzer-Richard hypothesis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 561-576, June.
    20. Enea Baselgia & Reto Foellmi, 2022. "Inequality and growth: a review on a great open debate in economics," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-5, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    income inequality; electoral turnout; heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

    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:ces:ceswps:_4999. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.