The generation gap in direct democracy: age vs. cohort effects

Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt, Wolfgang Maennig and Steffen Mueller

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We document a generation gap in direct democracy outcomes across a wide range of topics that is causally related to aging. To this end, we combine different sources of postelection survey data covering more than 300 Swiss referenda and four decades. Young voters are more likely to support initiatives that favor their own generation in the present, e.g., a lower retirement age or increased unemployment benefits, or in favor of all generations in the future, e.g., environment protection. To estimate the causal effect of aging on political attitudes, we propose a novel unconstrained panel rank regression approach that separately identifies age and cohort effects. The aging effect on political attitudes is robust for controlling for arbitrary cohort effects and appears to be driven by expected utility maximization and not by habituation-induced status-quo bias.

Keywords: age; cohort; direct democracy; status quo; referendum; Cohort; Referendum; Age; Direct democracy; Status quo (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D70 H30 H40 J10 P48 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2022-03-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-pol and nep-upt
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Published in European Journal of Political Economy, 28, March, 2022, 72. ISSN: 0176-2680

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Journal Article: The generation gap in direct democracy: Age vs. cohort effects (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:111902

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