Habit Formation in Voting: Evidence from Rainy Elections | Zendy

Thomas Fujiwara | Zendy; Kyle C. Meng | Zendy; Tom Vogl | Zendy

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Habit Formation in Voting: Evidence from Rainy Elections

Author(s) -

Thomas Fujiwara,

Kyle C. Meng,

Tom Vogl

Publication year - 2016

Publication title -

american economic journal applied economics

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 12.996

H-Index - 82

eISSN - 1945-7782

pISSN - 1945-7790

DOI - 10.1257/app.20140533

Subject(s) - turnout , voter turnout , voting , habit , value (mathematics) , demographic economics , presidential system , economics , econometrics , point (geometry) , consumption (sociology) , voting behavior , political science , statistics , mathematics , politics , psychology , social psychology , sociology , geometry , law , social science

We estimate habit formation in voting--the effect of past on current turnout--by exploiting transitory voting cost shocks. Using county-level data on US presidential elections from 1952-2012, we find that rainfall on current and past election days reduces voter turnout. Our estimates imply that a 1-point decrease in past turnout lowers current turnout by 0.6-1.0 points. Further analyses suggest that habit formation operates by reinforcing the direct consumption value of voting and that our estimates may be amplified by social spillovers.

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