Income Changes Do Not Influence Political Participation: Evidence from Comparative Panel Data

Sebastian Jungkunz () and Paul Marx ()
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Sebastian Jungkunz: University of Duisburg-Essen
Paul Marx: University of Bonn

No 14198, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The income gradient in political participation is a widely accepted stylized fact. This article asks how income effects on political involvement unfold over time. Using nine panel datasets from six countries, it analyzes whether income changes have short-term effects on political involvement, whether effects vary across the life-cycle, and whether parental income has an independent influence. Irrespective of indicator, specification, and method (hybrid models, inclusion of lags and leads, error-correction models), we find neither significant short-term effects of income changes nor life-cycle variation in these effects. However, parental income does seem to affect political socialization. Descriptive evidence and latent-growth-curve modeling based on household panels show that participatory inequality by parental income is already large before voting age. Poorer voters do not catch up with their richer peers in their twenties. This implies an urgent need for research on (political) inequality in youth and childhood.

Keywords: panel data; political inequality; participation; socialization; income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 D31 D72 D91 P16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur
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Published - published as 'Income changes do not influence political involvement in panel data from six countries' in: European Journal of Political Research, 2022, 61 (3), 829-841

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