Arbeitspapier

Compulsory Voting, Voter Turnout and Asymmetrical Habit-formation

We examine whether compulsory voting influences habit-formation in voting. In Austria, some states temporarily introduced compulsory voting in national elections. We exploit border municipalities across two states that differ in compulsory voting legislation using a difference-in-differences and a difference-in-discontinuity approach. We investigate the long-term effects of compulsory voting on voter turnout, invalid votes and vote shares for left-wing and right-wing parties. The results show that compulsory voting increased voter turnout by 3.4 percentage points. When compulsory voting was abolished, voter turnout, however, returned to the pre-compulsory voting level. The results also do not suggest that compulsory voting influenced invalid votes and vote shares of left-wing and right-wing parties asymmetrically. We conclude that compulsory voting was not habit-forming.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 6764

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
Capitalist Systems: General
Thema
compulsory voting
voter turnout
party vote shares
difference-in-discontinuity design
habit-formation
Austria

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Gäbler, Stefanie
Potrafke, Niklas
Rösel, Felix
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
(wo)
Munich
(wann)
2017

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Gäbler, Stefanie
  • Potrafke, Niklas
  • Rösel, Felix
  • Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)

Entstanden

  • 2017

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