The Effects of Voting Costs on the Democratic Process and Public Finances

Roland Hodler, Simon Luechinger and Alois Stutzer

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2015, vol. 7, issue 1, 141-71

Abstract: Increasing the attractiveness of voting is often seen as a remedy for unequal participation and the influence of special-interest groups on public policy. However, lower voting costs may also bring less informed citizens to the poll, thereby inviting efforts to sway these voters. We substantiate this argument in a probabilistic voting model with campaign contributions. In an empirical analysis for the 26 Swiss cantons, we find that lower voting costs due to postal voting are related to higher turnout, lower average education and political knowledge of participants as well as lower government welfare expenditures and lower business taxation. (JEL D72, H25, H75, I20, I38)

JEL-codes: D72 H25 H75 I20 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20120383
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (68)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/pol.20120383 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/ds/0701/2012-0383_ds.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/data/0701/2012-0383_data.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/app/0701/2012-0383_app.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The effects of voting costs on the democratic process and public finances (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:7:y:2015:i:1:p:141-71

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

More articles in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().