IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejmic/v13y2021i4p548-86.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Voter Turnout and Preference Aggregation

Author

Listed:
  • Kei Kawai
  • Yuta Toyama
  • Yasutora Watanabe

Abstract

We study how voter turnout affects the aggregation of preferences in elections. Under voluntary voting, election outcomes disproportionately aggregate the preferences of voters with low voting cost and high preference intensity. We show identification of the correlation structure among preferences, costs, and perceptions of voting efficacy, and explore how the correlation affects preference aggregation. Using 2004 US presidential election data, we find that young, low-income, less-educated, and minority voters are underrepresented. All of these groups tend to prefer Democrats, except for the less educated. Democrats would have won the majority of the electoral votes if all eligible voters had turned out.

Suggested Citation

  • Kei Kawai & Yuta Toyama & Yasutora Watanabe, 2021. "Voter Turnout and Preference Aggregation," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 548-586, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:548-86
    DOI: 10.1257/mic.20190063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20190063
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E111041V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20190063.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20190063.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/mic.20190063?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nathan Canen & Kristopher Ramsay, 2024. "Quantifying theory in politics: Identification, interpretation, and the role of structural methods," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 36(4), pages 301-327, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:548-86. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.