This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. April 2022
  5. Does Context Outweigh Individual Characteristics in Driving Voting Behavior? Evidence from Relocations within the United States

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Does Context Outweigh Individual Characteristics in Driving Voting Behavior? Evidence from Relocations within the United States

  • Enrico Cantoni
  • Vincent Pons
American Economic Review
vol. 112, no. 4, April 2022
(pp. 1226–72)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We measure the overall influence of contextual versus individual factors (e.g., voting rules and media as opposed to race and education) on voter behavior, and explore underlying mechanisms. Using a US-wide voter-level panel, 2008–2018, we examine voters who relocate across state and county lines, tracking changes in registration, turnout, and party affiliation to estimate location and individual fixed effects in a value-added model. Location explains 37 percent of the cross-state variation in turnout (to 63 percent for individual characteristics) and an only slightly smaller share of variation in party affiliation. Place effects are larger for young and White voters.

Citation

Cantoni, Enrico, and Vincent Pons. 2022. "Does Context Outweigh Individual Characteristics in Driving Voting Behavior? Evidence from Relocations within the United States." American Economic Review, 112 (4): 1226–72. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201660

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
  • D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
  • I20 Education and Research Institutions: General
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
  • L82 Entertainment; Media
  • R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics