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

Wolfgang Maennig, Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Malte Steenbeck

VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

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 anal-yses, instead of referenda.

JEL-codes: D61 D62 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-ppm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Après Nous le Déluge? Direct Democracy and Intergenerational Conflicts in Ageing Societies (2016)
Working Paper: Après nous le déluge? Direct democracy and intergenerational conflicts in aging societies (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145793

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