The Causal Effect of Compulsory Voting Laws on Turnout: Does Skill Matter?

AbstractAdopting compulsory voting (CV) legislation is expected to produce near-universal turnout, which in turn is assumed to iron out class-based differences in political influence and representation. The article traces the historical process generating the sequential adoption of CV in 8 of the 17 Cisleithanian crownlands of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1907 and 1911, and leverages a difference-in-differences (DiD) method to estimate its causal effect on turnout and voting patterns in elections to the Imperial Council. Exploiting unique data on the turnout of citizens based on their occupational categories, it further examines whether the adoption of CV attenuated class bias in turnout. Despite a large boost to turnout, CV neither increased support for parties representing the working classes, nor attenuated the class bias in turnout.

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Compulsory Voting Can Increase Political Inequality: Evidence from Brazil

Political Analysis ◽

10.1093/pan/mpw004 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 273-280 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Gabriel Cepaluni ◽

F. Daniel Hidalgo

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Causal Effect ◽

National Sample ◽

Upper Class ◽

Political Inequality ◽

Individual Level ◽

Compulsory Voting ◽

Heterogeneous Effects ◽

Level Data

One of the most robust findings on political institutions is that compulsory voting (CV) reduces the participation gap between poorer and wealthier voters. We present evidence that in Brazil, the largest country to use such a rule, CVincreasesinequality in turnout. We use individual-level data on 140 million Brazilian citizens and two age-based discontinuities to estimate the heterogeneous effects of CV by educational achievement, a strong proxy for socioeconomic status. Evidence from both thresholds shows that the causal effect of CV on turnout among the more educated is at least twice the size of the effect among those with less education. To explain this result, which is the opposite of what is predicted by the existing literature, we argue that nonmonetary penalties for abstention primarily affect middle- and upper-class voters and thus increase their turnout disproportionately. Survey evidence from a national sample provides evidence for the mechanism. Our results show that studies of CV should consider nonmonetary sanctions, as their effects can reverse standard predictions.

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Isolating the Effect of Compulsory Voting Laws on Political Sophistication: Exploiting Intra-National Variation in Mandatory Voting Laws between the Austrian Provinces

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2147871 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Victoria Shineman

Keyword(s):

Political Sophistication ◽

Compulsory Voting ◽

Mandatory Voting ◽

Voting Laws

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The Consequences of Compulsory Voting

10.1093/oso/9780198832928.003.0002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 37-56

Author(s):

Shane P. Singh

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Political Engagement ◽

Income Growth ◽

Voter Participation ◽

Compulsory Voting ◽

The Impact ◽

Mandatory Voting ◽

Voting Laws

This chapter reviews the growing literature on compulsory voting’s consequences. Compulsory voting has an unsurprising upward impact on voter participation, which lessens the impact of many socioeconomic and demographic forerunners of turnout, thereby making the composition of the voting population better reflect the distribution of eligible voters. Further, invalid balloting tends to be more common under compulsory voting. Compelled voters are also less likely to cast ballots that correspond with their preferences. Many studies indicate that mandatory voting has an educative effect and can socialize people into political engagement, with others casting strong doubt on this possibility. A small number of studies have assessed whether compulsory voting shapes attitudes, election outcomes, the behavior of political parties, policy characteristics, and income growth and inequality, with few clear patterns yet established. Compulsory voting laws have the greatest impact where sanctions for abstention are enforced and meaningful.

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Estimating the Magnitude of the Relation Between Bullying, E-Bullying, and Suicidal Behaviors Among United States Youth, 2015

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000544 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 157-165 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kevin S. Kuehn ◽

Annelise Wagner ◽

Jennifer Velloza

Keyword(s):

Adolescent Suicide ◽

Suicide Attempts ◽

Causal Effect ◽

Strong Association ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Average Causal Effect ◽

Effects Of Bullying ◽

Pc Algorithm ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Significant Covariates

Abstract. Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among US adolescents aged 12–19 years. Researchers would benefit from a better understanding of the direct effects of bullying and e-bullying on adolescent suicide to inform intervention work. Aims: To explore the direct and indirect effects of bullying and e-bullying on adolescent suicide attempts (SAs) and to estimate the magnitude of these effects controlling for significant covariates. Method: This study uses data from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), a nationally representative sample of US high school youth. We quantified the association between bullying and the likelihood of SA, after adjusting for covariates (i.e., sexual orientation, obesity, sleep, etc.) identified with the PC algorithm. Results: Bullying and e-bullying were significantly associated with SA in logistic regression analyses. Bullying had an estimated average causal effect (ACE) of 2.46%, while e-bullying had an ACE of 4.16%. Limitations: Data are cross-sectional and temporal precedence is not known. Conclusion: These findings highlight the strong association between bullying, e-bullying, and SA.

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