Partisan Gerrymandering and Turnout

Daniel Jones, Neil Silveus and Carly Urban

Journal of Law and Economics, 2023, vol. 66, issue 3, 557 - 579

Abstract: How does partisan gerrymandering affect turnout for US House elections? Common measures of gerrymandering are a function of turnout, which makes assessments of the impacts on turnout difficult. We present evidence from two natural experiments. First, using a nationwide sample, we construct a state-level measure of gerrymandering based on the partisan composition of districts and leverage variation stemming from congressional redistricting. Second, we draw on Pennsylvania and Ohio voter files and leverage the court-ordered redrawing of Pennsylvania districts in 2018 aimed at undoing partisan gerrymandering. Both approaches reveal that higher levels of partisan gerrymandering causally reduce turnout.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/725767 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/725767 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
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:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/725767

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Law and Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().