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"Love Thy Neighbour"? The Effect of Income and Language Differences on Votes for Municipal Secessions

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  • Lapointe, Simon

Abstract

This paper studies voters' preferences on municipal borders in a setting with cohabiting linguistic communities. It takes advantage of unique data from referendum results in the Canadian province of Quebec in 2004, which allows a direct investigation of voter preferences. I find that differences in income and language affect the likelihood of secession. Notably, I also find that these effects are interdependent, suggesting that the support for a local secession is affected to some degree by out-group aversion. Finally, I find that voters are willing to pay additional taxes to live in their jurisdiction of choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Lapointe, Simon, 2018. ""Love Thy Neighbour"? The Effect of Income and Language Differences on Votes for Municipal Secessions," Working Papers 107, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:fer:wpaper:107
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    File URL: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/154622
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    Cited by:

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    2. Tjaša Bjedov & Simon Lapointe & Thierry Madiès & Marie Claire Villeval, 2018. "Does decentralization of decisions increase the stability of large groups?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(4), pages 681-716, December.
    3. Blesse, Sebastian & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2020. "Citizens’ trade-offs in state merger decisions: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 438-471.
    4. repec:hal:journl:hal-03380333 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    secession; diversity; voter behaviour; municipal mergers; Local public finance and provision of public services; D72; H73; H77; Kunnat ja hyvinvointialueet;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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