Cash Transfers and Voter Turnout

Alexander James, Nathaly Rivera and Brock Smith

No 2022-01, Working Papers from University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Economics

Abstract: We estimate the effect of cash transfers on voter turnout, leveraging a large-scale natural experiment, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program, which provides residents with a check of varying size one month before election day. We find that transfers cause people to vote, especially in gubernatorial elections in which a 10% increase in cash ($180) causes a 1.4 percentage point increase in turnout. Effects are concentrated among racial minorities, theÊyoung, and poor. There is little evidence that transfers reduce logistical costs of voting, but rather operate by reducing voter apathy among the low-income electorate.

Keywords: Voter Turnout; Civic Engagement; Cash Transfers; Natural-Field Experiment; Democratic Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H31 H70 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-pol
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http://www.econpapers.uaa.alaska.edu/RePEC/ala/wpaper/ALA202201.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Cash Transfer and Voter Turnout (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ala:wpaper:2022-01

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