The Effects of Voting Costs on the Democratic Process and Public Finances

Arbeitspapier

Increasing the attractiveness of voting is often seen as a remedy for unequal par- ticipation and the influence of special-interest groups on public policy. However, lower voting costs may also bring less informed citizens to the poll inviting efforts to sway these voters. We substantiate this argument in a probabilistic voting model with campaign contributions. In an empirical analysis for the 26 Swiss states, we find that lower voting costs due to postal voting are related to higher turnout, lower average education of participants, lower knowledge on the political issues they were deciding on as well as lower government welfare expenditures.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WWZ Discussion Paper ; No. 2012/02

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation ; Public Economics: General
• Subject: Fiscal policies ; political knowledge ; postal voting ; special-interest politics ; voter turnout ; voting costs ; Finanzpolitik ; Wahlverhalten ; Partizipation ; Öffentliche Ausgaben ; Teilstaat ; Schweiz

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hodler, Roland ; Luechinger, Simon ; Stutzer, Alois
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Basel, Center of Business and Economics (WWZ)
• (where): Basel
• (when): 2012

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5451/unibas-ep28604
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/123432
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET