Arbeitspapier

Signature requirements and citizen initatives: Quasi-experimental evidence from Germany

Signature requirements are often used as hurdles to prevent overuse of public referenda. We evaluate the causal effect of lowering signature requirements on the number of observed citizen initiatives. Based on municipality-level data for Germany, we make use of legislative changes at specific population thresholds to build an identification strategy using a regression discontinuity design. We find that reducing the signature requirement by 1 percentage point increases the probability of observing an initiative by 8-10 percentage points. The results are robust to a variety of tests. Importantly, we go into great detail to rule out other potential confounders.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 1311

Classification
Wirtschaft
Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government
State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations: Other
Subject
signature requirements
citizen initiatives
local referenda
municipality data
regression discontinuity design

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Arnold, Felix
Freier, Ronny
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
(where)
Berlin
(when)
2013

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Arnold, Felix
  • Freier, Ronny
  • Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)

Time of origin

  • 2013

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