Shaken Politics: The Electoral Outcomes of Disasters and Social Capital
Giovanni Gualtieri (),
Marcella Nicolini (),
Fabio Sabatini and
Marco Ventura ()
Additional contact information
Giovanni Gualtieri: National Research Council, Italy
Marcella Nicolini: University of Pavia
Marco Ventura: Sapienza University of Rome
No 17758, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Abstract:
We study the electoral repercussions of the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009, one of Italy's most catastrophic post-WWII seismic events. We construct a unique municipality-level dataset, combining high-resolution data on the ground acceleration recorded during the earthquake with European election results and social capital metrics. Our findings indicate that the intensity of the shock positively influenced support for the incumbent national government but provided no electoral advantage to local incumbents. Analyzing potential transmission mechanisms, we find that relief measures did not automatically translate into political rewards. Instead, social capital played a pivotal role in shaping post--disaster electoral outcomes. The national government's electoral gains were concentrated in municipalities with a low density of civic organizations, where citizens relied predominantly on political institutions for assistance. Individual level evidence from survey data further supports our findings. Nonetheless, the impact of the earthquake was not enduring. In the subsequent elections, the incumbent government experienced a decline in support in the very municipalities where it had initially gained favor following the disaster.
Keywords: Italy; natural disasters; social capital; redistribution; relief spending; elections; Silvio Berlusconi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H10 H12 Q54 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17758.pdf (application/pdf)
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:iza:izadps:dp17758
Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().