Political extremism and economic activity

Matthew Rao, Paul Raschky and Christis Tombazos ()

Economics Letters, 2018, vol. 170, issue C, 59-62

Abstract: We study the effect of economic activity on the vote share of extremist political parties in Europe. Using a model that addresses the prevalent endogeneity problem, which is likely to have discouraged similar research, we find that small fluctuations in income per-capita have significant inverse effects on the vote share of far-right parties. Our results explain the widespread success of such parties in entering European parliaments following the 2007–2008 crisis. They also suggest that, ceteris paribus, far-right parties on the margin of electoral thresholds run the risk of losing parliamentary representation in the face of a steadily recovering world economy.

Keywords: Political extremism; Nationalism; Populism; Economic growth; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 G01 O4 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:170:y:2018:i:c:p:59-62

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2018.05.027

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