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The health costs of losing political representation: Evidence from U.S. Presidential Elections

Author

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  • Sris Chatterjee
  • Iftekhar Hasan
  • Stefano Manfredonia

Abstract

We investigate whether a change in political leadership affects health outcomes. To do so, we exploit turnover elections that move partisan individuals into and out of alignment with the party of the President. We document that the lack of political alignment has a negative, immediate, and long-lasting effect on health. We do not find any evidence that our results can be explained by other confounding trends or by changes in economic outcomes or other economic policies. Further results suggest that political sentiments and social isolation are important potential mechanisms in this setting and that lack of political representation affects the mental health of individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Sris Chatterjee & Iftekhar Hasan & Stefano Manfredonia, 2025. "The health costs of losing political representation: Evidence from U.S. Presidential Elections," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(10), pages 1-29, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0334507
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0334507
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew J. Notowidigdo & Frank Schilbach & Jonathan Zhang, 2024. "Lives vs. Livelihoods: The Impact of the Great Recession on Mortality and Welfare," NBER Working Papers 32110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Hasan, Iftekhar & Krause, Thomas & Manfredonia, Stefano & Noth, Felix, 2022. "Banking market deregulation and mortality inequality," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 14/2022, Bank of Finland.
    3. Brantly Callaway & Andrew Goodman-Bacon & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna, 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with a Continuous Treatment," Papers 2107.02637, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2025.
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