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Compulsory Voting and Turnout Inequality: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

Sun, May 26, 4:00 to 5:30pm, TBA

Abstract

As voting rates have declined in several democracies, concern about an exacerbation of inequality in electoral participation has been voiced in certain quarters. Compulsory voting (CV) has been suggested as a solution to both low and unequal turnout.

Whereas the empirical literature has demonstrated that mandatory voting has a strong positive impact on turnout levels, the jury is still out as to whether it reduces biases in electoral participation. I herein address this question by means of a regression discontinuity design (RDD) that exploits a feature of CV laws present in some countries: the fact that poll attendance is optional for citizens above a certain age. To this end, I have assembled an original dataset that contains official individual-level information from Peru.

This paper is part of a larger study that seeks to probe the idea that the consequences of mandatory voting hinge on the type of sanctions in place. Building on Cepaluni and Hidalgo’s (2016) work on Brazil, this project’s ultimate goal is to compare the results of RDDs for Argentina and Peru, whose CV laws differ in point of penalties for noncompliance.

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