Happy voters

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• 作者：Federica Liberini^a ; Michela Redoano^b ; ^c ; ^{Michela.Redoano@warwick.ac.uk} ; Eugenio Proto^c ; ^d
• 关键词：H1 ; D6 ; D0 ; D1
• 刊名：Journal of Public Economics
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：146
• 期：Complete
• 页码：41-57
• 全文大小：1438 K
• 卷排序：146

文摘

To our knowledge, it is the first paper to test the retrospective voting model by showing that subjective well-being explains variation in voting intention that goes beyond what is captured by traditional monetary and financial indicators. Obvious concerns when exploring the relationship between voting and well-being are reverse causality and omitted variable bias. We address this concern in two different ways: We analyze the responses of a sub-sample of ideologically neutral individuals (i.e. those who do not have a priori party bias) whose well-being should not be affected by the identity of the ruling party per se. We use difference-in-differences analysis to identify how voter intention is affected by a negative shock to well-being: the death of a spouse. This latter set-up not only provides a way to address concerns related to the identification of the effect running from SWB to voting, but also allows us to address voters’ rationality.