Après nous le déluge? Direct democracy and intergenerational conflicts in aging societies

Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Wolfgang Maennig and Malte Steenbeck ()
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Malte Steenbeck: Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg

No 54, Working Papers from Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg

Abstract: To assess the likely effects of population ageing on the outcomes of direct democracy, we analyze the effect of age on voting decisions in public referenda. To this end, we provide the first quantitative review of the literature and a case study of the Stuttgart 21 referendum on one of the largest infrastructure projects in Germany. The evidence suggests that intergenerational conflicts arising from population ageing will likely be limited to areas in which the net present value differs particularly strongly across generations, such as education and health spending, green energy, and major transport projects. In such instances, however, the effect can be quantitatively relevant, raising the question of whether, as population ageing progresses, decisions should be based on social cost-benefit analyses, instead of referenda.

Keywords: Aging; direct democracy; intergenerational conflict; NIMBY; referendum; Stuttgart 21; transport; voting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 D62 H41 H71 I18 L83 R41 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 67 pages
Date: 2016-02-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-ppm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in Hamburg Contemporary Economic Discussions, Issue 54, 2016

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http://www.hced.uni-hamburg.de/WorkingPapers/HCED-054.pdf First Version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Après Nous le Déluge? Direct Democracy and Intergenerational Conflicts in Ageing Societies (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hce:wpaper:054

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