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Compulsory voting and political participation: Empirical evidence from Austria

Author

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  • Gaebler, Stefanie
  • Potrafke, Niklas
  • Roesel, Felix

Abstract

We examine whether compulsory voting influences political participation as measured by voter turnout, invalid voting, political interest, confidence in parliament, and party membership. In Austria, some states temporarily introduced compulsory voting in national elections. We investigate border municipalities across two states which differ in compulsory voting legislation using a difference-in-differences approach. The results show that compulsory voting increased voter turnout by 3.5 percentage points but we do not find long-run effects. Once compulsory voting was abolished, voter turnout returned to pre-compulsory voting levels. Microdata evidence suggests that compulsory voting tends to crowd out intrinsic motivation for political participation which may explain why compulsory voting is not found to be habit-forming.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaebler, Stefanie & Potrafke, Niklas & Roesel, Felix, 2020. "Compulsory voting and political participation: Empirical evidence from Austria," Munich Reprints in Economics 84756, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:84756
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    Cited by:

    1. Cantoni, Enrico & Gazzè, Ludovica & Schafer, Jerome, 2021. "Turnout in concurrent elections: Evidence from two quasi-experiments in Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Artiga González, Tanja & Capozza, Francesco & Granic, Georg D., 2024. "Cognitive dissonance, political participation, and changes in policy preferences," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Jing Hou & Yujing Jin & Feiyu Chen, 2020. "Should Waste Separation Be Mandatory? A Study on Public’s Response to the Policies in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Tanja Artiga González & Francesco Capozza & Georg D. Granic, 2022. "Can Cognitive Dissonance Theory Explain Action Induced Changes in Political Preferences?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9549, CESifo.
    5. Marco Frank & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2020. "Electoral Turnout During States of Emergency and Effects on Incumbent Vote Share," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-10, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    6. Stiers, Dieter & Hooghe, Marc, 2026. "Is it possible to predict electoral abstention on the individual level? A preregistered test on forecasting the effects of abolishing compulsory voting in Belgium," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 99-111.
    7. Binfeng Shi, 2024. "Transmission mechanism of public concern in waste-sorting policy: Evidence from text mining," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(3), pages 1616-1636, May.
    8. Andrea Bonoldi & Chiara Dalle Nogare & Martin Mosler & Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "Do inheritance rules affect voter turnout? Evidence from an Alpine region," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 395-445, December.
    9. Marco Frank & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2023. "Higher turnout increases incumbency advantages: Evidence from mayoral elections," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 529-555, July.
    10. Sebastian Garmann, 2020. "Political efficacy and the persistence of turnout shocks," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 411-429, November.
    11. Jean-Victor Alipour & Valentin Lindlacher, 2025. "No Surprises, Please: Voting Costs and Electoral Turnout," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 59-97.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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