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Voting after a Major Flood: Is there a Link between Democratic Experience and Retrospective Voting?

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  • Neugart, Michael
  • Rode, Johannes

Abstract

We explore whether retrospective voting is related to voters’ democratic experience. To this end, we compare the voting behavior in West Germany to the voting behavior in the formerly non-democratic East Germany after a disaster relief program addressing a flood in 2013. Our analysis reveals a 2.2% (or 0.9 percentage points) increase in the vote share for the incumbent party in the flooded municipalities in the East compared to the West. Analyzing an earlier flood, variation of democratic experience within East Germany, and a panel survey provides further evidence that less democratically experienced voters are easier prey to pre-election policies.
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  • Neugart, Michael & Rode, Johannes, 2019. "Voting after a Major Flood: Is there a Link between Democratic Experience and Retrospective Voting?," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 119282, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    • Handle: RePEc:dar:wpaper:119282
    Note: for complete metadata visit http://tubiblio.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/119282/
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H84 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Disaster Aid
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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