“Love thy neighbour”? The effect of income and language differences on votes for municipal secessions

Simon Lapointe

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2018, vol. 70, issue C, 229-245

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 allow 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.

Keywords: Secession; Diversity; Voter behaviour; Municipal mergers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H73 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: "Love Thy Neighbour"? The Effect of Income and Language Differences on Votes for Municipal Secessions (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:70:y:2018:i:c:p:229-245

DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2018.04.008

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