American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Taxes and Turnout: When the Decisive Voter Stays at Home
American Economic Review
vol. 112,
no. 2, February 2022
(pp. 689–719)
Abstract
We develop a model of political competition with endogenous turn-out and endogenous platforms. Parties trade off incentivizing their supporters to vote and discouraging the supporters of the competing party from voting. We show that the latter objective is particularly pronounced for a party with an edge in the political race. Thus, an increase in political support for a party may lead to the adoption of policies favoring its opponents so as to asymmetrically demobilize them. We study the implications for the political economy of redistributive taxation. Equilibrium tax policy is typically aligned with the interest of voters who are demobilized.Citation
Bierbrauer, Felix, Aleh Tsyvinski, and Nicolas Werquin. 2022. "Taxes and Turnout: When the Decisive Voter Stays at Home." American Economic Review, 112 (2): 689–719. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171927Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- H23 Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
- H24 Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes