IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_5910.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Voter Turnout in European Parliament Elections: A Spatial Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Nadia Fiorino
  • Nicola Pontarollo
  • Roberto Ricciuti

Abstract

In European Parliament elections turnout rates, traditionally lower than in national parliamentary elections, decrease from one elections to the next, and show strong variations within and between countries. What explains this decline? Why are there such big differences between and within the EU member countries? This paper investigates these problems by analyzing the last four EP elections in the EU-13, for 156 regions. We first study the spatial features of turnout and subsequently test a Hierarchical Linear Model to assess the impact of some socio-economic, institutional and political factors on voter turnout. The results confirm the spatial dependence of data and indicate a significant role of compulsory voting, domestic political cleavages, and uncertainty on the labor market. No evidence is found that European financial transfers, GDP per capita or unemployment influence turnout. Finally, the oldest segment of population seems more prone to vote than the youngest part.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadia Fiorino & Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2016. "Voter Turnout in European Parliament Elections: A Spatial Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 5910, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5910.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Terry Gregory & Roberto Patuelli, 2015. "Demographic ageing and the polarization of regions—an exploratory space–time analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(5), pages 1192-1210, May.
    2. Bendor, Jonathan & Diermeier, Daniel & Ting, Michael M., 2000. "A Behavioral Model of Turnout," Research Papers 1627, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    3. Cem Ertur & Julie Le Gallo & Catherine Baumont, 2006. "The European Regional Convergence Process, 1980-1995: Do Spatial Regimes and Spatial Dependence Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-34, January.
    4. Jackman, Robert W., 1987. "Political Institutions and Voter Turnout in the Industrial Democracies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 405-423, June.
    5. Luc Anselin, 2003. "Spatial Externalities, Spatial Multipliers, And Spatial Econometrics," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 153-166, April.
    6. Abdul Ghafar Noury & Simon Hix & Gérard Roland, 2007. "Democratic politics in the European Parliament," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7744, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Bendor, Jonathan & Diermeier, Daniel & Ting, Michael, 2003. "A Behavioral Model of Turnout," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(2), pages 261-280, May.
    8. Scott Orford, 2000. "Modelling Spatial Structures in Local Housing Market Dynamics: A Multilevel Perspective," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(9), pages 1643-1671, August.
    9. Roberto Ricciuti, 2004. "Political Fragmentation and Fiscal Outcomes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 118(3_4), pages 365-388, March.
    10. Claes H. de Vreese & Susan A. Banducci & Holli A. Semetko & Hajo G. Boomgaarden, 2006. "The News Coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 Countries," European Union Politics, , vol. 7(4), pages 477-504, December.
    11. Radcliff, Benjamin, 1992. "The Welfare State, Turnout, and the Economy: A Comparative Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(2), pages 444-454, June.
    12. Oliver, J. Eric, 2000. "City Size and Civic Involvement in Metropolitan America," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 94(2), pages 361-373, June.
    13. Rosenstone, Steven J. & Wolfinger, Raymond E., 1978. "The Effect of Registration Laws on Voter Turnout," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(1), pages 22-45, March.
    14. Marsh, Michael, 1998. "Testing the Second-Order Election Model after Four European Elections," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(4), pages 591-607, October.
    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. 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.
    2. Nadia Fiorino & Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2019. "Supranational, National and Local Dimensions of Voter Turnout in European Parliament Elections," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 877-893, July.
    3. Nadia Fiorino & Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2021. "Spatial links in the analysis of voter turnout in European Parliamentary elections," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 65-78, April.
    4. David Jesuit, 2003. "The Regional Dynamics of European Electoral Politics," European Union Politics, , vol. 4(2), pages 139-164, June.
    5. Sandy Dall'erba & Julie Le Gallo, 2008. "Regional convergence and the impact of European structural funds over 1989–1999: A spatial econometric analysis," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 219-244, June.
    6. Serge Blondel & Louis Lévy-garboua, 2011. "Can non-expected utility theories explain the paradox of not voting?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(4), pages 3158-3168.
    7. Thomas Fujiwara & Carlos Sanz, 2017. "Norms in bargaining: evidence from government formation in Spain," Working Papers 1741, Banco de España.
    8. Mendieta Muñoz, Rodrigo & Pontarollo, Nicola, 2015. "Cantonal Convergence in Ecuador: A Spatial Econometric Perspective," MPRA Paper 68399, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Takahiro Ezaki & Yutaka Horita & Masanori Takezawa & Naoki Masuda, 2016. "Reinforcement Learning Explains Conditional Cooperation and Its Moody Cousin," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, July.
    10. Panova, Elena, 2015. "A passion for voting," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 44-65.
    11. Rene Lindstadt, Jonathan B. Slapin & Ryan J. Vander Wielen, 2009. "Balancing Competing Demands: Position-Taking and Election Proximity in the European Parliament," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp295, IIIS.
    12. Nikoleta Yordanova, 2009. "The Rationale behind Committee Assignment in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(2), pages 253-280, June.
    13. Catherine Baumont, 2009. "Spatial effects of urban public policies on housing values," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 301-326, June.
    14. Aaron Edlin & Andrew Gelman & Noah Kaplan, 2007. "Voting as a Rational Choice: Why and How People Vote to Improve the Well-Being of Others," NBER Working Papers 13562, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Pontarollo, Nicola & Serpieri, Carolina, 2020. "A composite policy tool to measure territorial resilience capacity," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Julio Rotemberg, 2009. "Attitude-dependent altruism, turnout and voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 223-244, July.
    17. Tony Caporale & Marc Poitras, 2014. "Voter turnout in US presidential elections: does Carville’s law explain the time series?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(29), pages 3630-3638, October.
    18. Luís Aguiar-Conraria & Pedro Magalhães, 2010. "Referendum design, quorum rules and turnout," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 63-81, July.
    19. Sebastian Garmann, 2020. "Political efficacy and the persistence of turnout shocks," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 411-429, November.
    20. Arbia, Giuseppe & Battisti, Michele & Di Vaio, Gianfranco, 2010. "Institutions and geography: Empirical test of spatial growth models for European regions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 12-21, January.

    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:_5910. 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.