Premium
Electoral participation and household food insecurity in sub‐Saharan Africa
Author(s) -
Olabiyi Olayemi M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8268.12447
Subject(s) - food insecurity , voting , logistic regression , food security , turnout , demographic economics , causality (physics) , economics , voting behavior , political science , development economics , geography , politics , medicine , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , law , agriculture
This paper analyses the impact of household food insecurity on electoral participation in 30 sub‐Sahara African countries with the aid of micro‐level data drawn from the sixth round of the Afrobarometer survey. Estimates from logistic regression indicate that being food insecure reduces the likelihood of electoral participation by 7%. Notably, results from the endogenous binary‐variable regression, which controlled for potential reverse causality, confirm that household food insecurity is a crucial driver of voter turnout in sub‐Saharan Africa. Further analysis reveals that voting behaviour was much higher and statistically significant amongst voters who were intermittently food insecure than those that were always food insecure. Finally, it appears that turnout at national elections depends mostly on the severity of food insecurity. Therefore, it can be argued that the implementation of policies aimed at stemming household food insecurity could play an essential role in increasing voter turnout.