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.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 1311

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

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Arnold, Felix
Freier, Ronny
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
(wo)
Berlin
(wann)
2013

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

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

Entstanden

  • 2013

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