Residential Mobility and Turnout: The Relevance of Social Costs, Timing and Education
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Residential Mobility and Turnout: The Relevance of Social Costs, Timing and Education. / Hansen, Jonas Hedegaard.
In: Political Behavior, Vol. 38, No. 4, 01.12.2016, p. 769-791.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Residential Mobility and Turnout: The Relevance of Social Costs, Timing and Education
AU - Hansen, Jonas Hedegaard
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Residential mobility has substantial negative effects on voter turnout. However, existing studies have been unable to disentangle whether this is due to social costs, informational costs or convenience costs that are related to re-registration. This article analyzes the relevance of the different costs by studying the effect of moving and reassignment to a new polling station in an automatic registration context and using a register-based panel dataset with validated turnout for 2.1 million citizens. The negative effect of moving on turnout does not differ substantially depending on the distance moved from the old neighborhood and it does not matter if citizens change municipality. Thus, the disruption of social ties is the main explanation for the negative effect of moving on turnout. Furthermore, the timing of residential mobility is important as the effect on turnout declines quickly after settling down. This illustrates that large events in citizens’ everyday life close to Election Day can distract them from going to the polling station. Finally, residential mobility mostly affects the turnout of less educated citizens. Consequentially, residential mobility increases inequalities in voter participation, which can be viewed as a democratic problem.
AB - Residential mobility has substantial negative effects on voter turnout. However, existing studies have been unable to disentangle whether this is due to social costs, informational costs or convenience costs that are related to re-registration. This article analyzes the relevance of the different costs by studying the effect of moving and reassignment to a new polling station in an automatic registration context and using a register-based panel dataset with validated turnout for 2.1 million citizens. The negative effect of moving on turnout does not differ substantially depending on the distance moved from the old neighborhood and it does not matter if citizens change municipality. Thus, the disruption of social ties is the main explanation for the negative effect of moving on turnout. Furthermore, the timing of residential mobility is important as the effect on turnout declines quickly after settling down. This illustrates that large events in citizens’ everyday life close to Election Day can distract them from going to the polling station. Finally, residential mobility mostly affects the turnout of less educated citizens. Consequentially, residential mobility increases inequalities in voter participation, which can be viewed as a democratic problem.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - Voter turnout
KW - Costs of voting
KW - Participation
KW - Reassignment of polling stations
KW - inequality
M3 - Journal article
VL - 38
SP - 769
EP - 791
JO - Political Behavior
JF - Political Behavior
SN - 0190-9320
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 154438611