IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/now/jlqjps/100.00011112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Movers, Stayers, and Registration: Why Age is Correlated with Registration in the U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Ansolabehere, Stephen
  • Hersh, Eitan
  • Shepsle, Kenneth

Abstract

Age is among the strongest predictors of political participation, yet it is also among the least well understood. We offer a probability model of participation in the U.S. voter registration system — the first step in the voting process. In this model, people have a constant probability of registering to vote at any given time and a constant probability of moving. A strong relationship between age and participation arises simply as a byproduct of the rules of the registration system, namely that participation is voluntary and that it is residentially based. Specifically, the probability that someone is registered increases over time (and thus with age) even when the probability of becoming registered is constant. A new, national random sample of 1.8 million voter registration records is employed to test the model. The model provides a theoretical foundation for the relationship between age and participation, identifies the functional form of that relationship, and solves a puzzle about the nature of participatory bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Ansolabehere, Stephen & Hersh, Eitan & Shepsle, Kenneth, 2012. "Movers, Stayers, and Registration: Why Age is Correlated with Registration in the U.S," Quarterly Journal of Political Science, now publishers, vol. 7(4), pages 333-363, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:now:jlqjps:100.00011112
    DOI: 10.1561/100.00011112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/100.00011112
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1561/100.00011112?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:now:jlqjps:100.00011112. 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: Lucy Wiseman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nowpublishers.com/ .

    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.