Economic deprivation and radical voting: Evidence from Germany

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies the impact of economic deprivation on radical voting. Using a unique dataset covering different indicators of economic deprivation as well as federal election outcomes at the county-level in Germany for the period from 1998 to 2017, we examine whether economic deprivation affects the share of votes for radical right and left-wing parties using instrumental variable estimation. Our results suggest that an increase in economic deprivation has a sizeable effect on the support for radical parties at both ends of the political spectrum. The higher a county's rate of relative poverty, the average shortfall from the national median income, and the poverty line, the higher the vote share of radical right-wing and left-wing parties. We also provide evidence that regional variation in economic deprivation gave rise to the electoral success of the populist right-wing party AfD in the federal election of 2017. Our findings thus indicate that a rise in economic deprivation may undermine moderate political forces and be a threat to political stability.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ifo Working Paper ; No. 336

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
• Subject: economic deprivation ; inequality ; political polarization ; radical voting ; Germany

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Dorn, Florian ; Fuest, Clemens ; Immel, Lea ; Neumeier, Florian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/224080
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET