American Economic Review: Insights
ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)
Universalism and Political Representation: Evidence from the Field
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 6,
no. 2, June 2024
(pp. 214–29)
Abstract
This paper provides field evidence on the link between morals and political behavior. We create a district-level variable that reflects to what degree charitable giving decreases as a function of (geographic and social) distance, which we interpret as a real-stakes measure of citizens' values on the universalism-particularism continuum. Our measure of district universalism is strongly predictive of local Democratic vote shares, legislators' roll call voting, and the moral content of congressional speeches. Spatial heterogeneity in universalism is a substantially stronger predictor of geographic variation in political outcomes than traditional economic variables such as income or education.Citation
Enke, Benjamin, Raymond Fisman, Luis Mota Freitas, and Steven Sun. 2024. "Universalism and Political Representation: Evidence from the Field." American Economic Review: Insights, 6 (2): 214–29. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20230222Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification