The Role of Society on Electoral Turnout: Evidence from Expats' Voting Behaviour
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SeriesBrown Bag Seminars General Economics
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SpeakerRubén Poblete-Cazenave
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FieldEmpirical Microeconomics
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LocationOnline
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Date and time
October 08, 2020
12:00 - 13:00
This paper analyses the role of society on
individuals' electoral participation by exploiting unique microdata on Chilean
expats registered to vote in the 2017 Chilean Presidential election. We
study how electoral participation in 2014 EU parliament election impacts Chilean
expats voting behavior. By exploiting a transitory shock to the cost of
voting, EU election day rainfall in the host country, we show that a one
percentage point increase in host country's turnout decreases electoral
participation in Chilean expats by 1 percentage point. This result seems to be
driven by social pressures towards expats not to vote in their home country
election. We observe larger impact of the host country's turnout on communities
that are more welcoming towards migrants and for Chilean expats that have been
living in the host country for longer.