Income Inequality and Political Participation: A District-Level Analysis of Hong Kong Elections

Mathew Y. H. Wong () and Stan Hok-Wui Wong ()
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Mathew Y. H. Wong: The Education University of Hong Kong
Stan Hok-Wui Wong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2022, vol. 162, issue 3, No 1, 959-977

Abstract: Abstract Income inequality has long been suggested as a crucial factor in determining political participation. This study focuses on the case of Hong Kong, a city with notoriously high level of inequality. To examine the effect of inequality on participation, we construct a novel District Income Inequality dataset that estimates inequality at the local district level, providing a more nuanced and accurate analysis of the level of inequality experienced by individuals on a daily basis, instead of the region-wide situation. By focusing on the election-to-election change in district-level inequality, it is found that inequality depresses participation in legislative elections. The results are also robust at the individual-level, with survey data demonstrating that people living in districts with higher inequality were less likely to vote.

Keywords: Income inequality; Political participation; Voting; Electoral authoritarianism; Hong Kong (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-021-02863-9

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