To swing or not to swing: an assessment of age and political cynicism of swing voting behaviour

Damon Proulx (), David Savage (), David Stadelmann () and Benno Torgler ()
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Damon Proulx: University of Newcastle, Australia: College of Social and Human Futures, Newcastle Business School.
David Savage: University of Newcastle, Australia: College of Social and Human Futures, Newcastle Business School.
David Stadelmann: Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany: Faculty of Law, Business & Economics
Benno Torgler: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia: School of Economics and Finance

Economics Bulletin, 2025, vol. 45, issue 3, 1630 - 1635

Abstract: The empirical question of voting preferences and how these may change (swing) is yet to be answered, as there is little first-hand microeconomic evidence on swing voting. We focus on the relevance of voters' age and political cynicism as predictors for swing voting. Towards this end, we apply a stated and revealed preference framework to assess swing voting, using data from the Dutch Parliamentary Election Survey (DPES) between 1989 to 2010. Our results indicate that swing voting is less likely to occur in older age groups and more likely among individuals with higher levels of political cynicism. The age effects tend to be stronger among those with lower political cynicism values.

Keywords: behavioural; economics; swing voting; age; cynicism; elections (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 D9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09-30
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