Human Capital and Voting Behavior across Generations

Evidence from an Income Intervention

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3378053
AutoresRandall Akee (0000-0003-2133-9866, University of California, Los Angeles, autor correspondente), William Copeland (0000-0002-1348-7781, Duke University, autor correspondente), John B Holbein (0000-0001-5099-3395, University of Virginia, autor correspondente), Emilia Simeonova (0000-0002-9290-9128, Johns Hopkins University, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume114
Fascículo2
Páginas609-616
Data de publicação2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000305541900090x
OpenAlexW3008612584
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas28
Referências citadas27

Despite clear evidence of a sharp income gradient in voting participation, it remains unclear whether income truly causes voting. In this article, we investigate how exogenous increases in unearned income affect voting in U.S. elections for two generations (parents and children) from the same household. In contrast to predictions made by current models of voting, we find the income shock had no effect on parents' voting behaviors. However, we also find that increasing household income has heterogeneous effects on the civic participation of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. It increases children's voting propensity among those raised in initially poorer families-resulting in substantially narrowed participatory gaps. Our results are consistent with a more nuanced view of how individual resources affect patterns of voting than the dominant theoretical framework of voting-the resource model-allows. Voting is fundamentally shaped by the human capital accrued long before citizens are eligible to vote

Affect (linguistics · Demographic economics · Economics · Political science · Politics · Population · Public economics · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Voting · Voting behavior · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Psychology · School Choice and Performance