A Poll Tax by any Other Name: The Political Economy of Disenfranchisement

Daniel Jones, Werner Troesken and Randall Walsh

No 18612, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the political economy of voting rights in the American South. We begin by measuring the impact of both formal laws and informal modes of voter suppression on African-American political participation. In contrast to prior research, we find evidence that both formal and informal modes of voter suppression were important and mutually reinforcing. Part of our analysis includes explicitly identifying the magnitude and causal effects of lynching on black voter participation. We then turn to analyzing to the relatively unexplored question of how disenfranchisement-and the accompanying shifts in political power-affected policy outcomes, congressional voting, and partisan control of state and federal legislatures.

JEL-codes: H0 J15 N11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-pke, nep-pol and nep-pub
Note: DAE PE POL
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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