 Valuing the Vote: The Redistribution of Voting Rights and State Funds following the Voting Rights Act of 1965The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2014, vol. 129, issue 1, 379-433 Abstract: The Voting Rights Act of 1965, called one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history, generated dramatic increases in black voter registration across the South. We ask whether the increase in black voting rights was accompanied by an increase in blacks' share of public spending. We exploit a key provision of the act--removal of literacy tests at registration--for identification. Employing a triple-difference framework over a 20-year period, we find that counties with higher black population shares in former literacy test states saw greater increases in both voter turnout and state transfers than comparison counties in non--literacy test states, a finding that is consistent with models of distributive politics. JEL Codes: D72, H7, I2, J15, N32. Copyright 2014, Oxford University Press. Date: 2014 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2014:i:1:p:379-433 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article The Quarterly Journal of Economics is currently edited by Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan Nunn, Andrei Shleifer and Stefanie Stantcheva More articles in The Quarterly Journal of Economics from President and Fellows of Harvard College |
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