Electoral Acceleration: The Effect of Minority Population on Minority Voter Turnout / Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Joel Waldfogel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oberholzer-Gee, Felix.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Waldfogel, Joel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w8252.

NBER working paper series no. w8252

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Electoral Acceleration

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2001.

Summary:

Political outcomes are well understood to depend on the spatial distribution of citizen preferences. In this paper, we document that the same holds for the individual decision to be politically active. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence on turnout, we show that citizens are more likely to vote if they live in a jurisdiction with a larger number of persons sharing similar political preferences. As a result, changes in the identity of a district's median citizen lead to even larger changes in the identity of its median voter, a phenomenon we term electoral acceleration. We present evidence that electoral acceleration is in part due to the structure of media markets. Candidates find it easier to direct campaign efforts at larger groups because many existing media outlets cater to this audience.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2001.