Political Power and Mortality: Heterogeneous Effects of the U.S. Voting Rights Act

Atheendar Venkataramani, Rourke O'Brien, Elizabeth Bair and Christopher Lowenstein

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Abstract: We study the health consequences of redistributing political power through the 1975 extension of the Voting Rights Act, which eliminated barriers to voting for previously disenfranchised nonwhite populations. The intervention led to broad declines in under-five mortality but sharply contrasting effects in other age groups: mortality fell among non-white children, younger adults, and older women, yet rose among whites and older non-white men. These differences cannot be reconciled by changes in population composition or material conditions. Instead, we present evidence suggesting psychosocial stress and retaliatory responses arising from perceived status threat as key mechanisms.

Date: 2025-10, Revised 2025-12
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