Is Voting Skin-Deep? Estimating the Effect of Candidate Ballot Photographs on Election Outcomes

Andrew Leigh and Tirta Susilo

No 583, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University

Abstract: In the Northern Territory, Australia, ballot papers for territory elections depict candidates’ photographs. We exploit this unusual electoral feature by looking at the effect that candidates’ beauty and skin color has on voting patterns. Our results for beauty are mixed, but we find strong evidence that skin color matters. In electorates with a small Indigenous population, lighter-skinned candidates receive more votes, while in electorates with a high number of Indigenous people, darker-skinned candidates are rewarded at the ballot box. The relationship between skin color and electoral performance is stronger for challengers than incumbents. We explain this with a model in which voters use skin color as a proxy for some underlying characteristic which they value only to the extent that they share the trait.

Keywords: elections; beauty; race; facial characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J45 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEPR/DP583.pdf (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Is voting skin-deep? Estimating the effect of candidate ballot photographs on election outcomes (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auu:dpaper:583

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