The Long-Term Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Voting Behavior
The "Moving to Opportunity" Experiment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3192808 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Mitchell Elder (0000-0002-9741-5012, Stanford University, corresponding author), Ryan D Enos (0000-0002-5855-7464, Harvard University Press, corresponding author), Tali Mendelberg (0000-0002-4494-7541, Princeton University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 118 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 988-1004 |
| Publication date | 2024-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055423000692 |
| OpenAlex | W4385342471 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 67 |
Socioeconomic disadvantage is a major correlate of low political participation. This association is among the most robust findings in political science. However, it is based largely on observational data. The causal effects of early-life disadvantage in particular are even less understood, because long-term data on the political consequences of randomized early-life anti-poverty interventions is nearly nonexistent. We leverage the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment to test the long-term effect of moving out of disadvantaged neighborhoods-and thus out of deep poverty-on turnout. MTO is one of the most ambitious anti-poverty experiments ever implemented in the United States. Although MTO ameliorated children's poverty long term, we find that, contrary to expectations, the intervention did not increase children's likelihood of voting later in life. Additional tests show the program did not ameliorate their poverty enough to affect turnout. These findings speak to the complex relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and low political participation
Demographic economics · Development economics · Disadvantage · Disadvantaged · Econometrics · Economic growth · Economics · Leverage (statistics · Logistic regression · Odds · Panel data · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Psychological intervention · Randomized experiment · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Turnout · Voting · Voting behavior · Demography · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies
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Housing Vacancy, Structural Decline, and Voter Turnout in South Korea
Adolescent Exposure to Economic Inequality and Belief in the ‘American Dream’ on Entering Adulthood
Mobility patterns predict increasing polarization between neighborhoods
Lights Out
Overriding Nature
Neighborhoods, Family, and Political Behavior in Urban America
The Space between Us
The Unheavenly Chorus
Making Young Voters
Trading Democracy for Justice
White-Collar Government
Neighborhood Effects on the Long-Term Well-Being of Low-Income Adults
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Cultivating Democracy
The Truly Disadvantaged
Who Votes Now?
Inner-City Poverty in the United States
Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects
Fragmented Democracy
The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children
Arresting Citizenship
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Forty acres and a mule
Political and Civic Participation Among Disadvantaged Urban Mothers
Political Places
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Democracy remixed
Race, Concentrated Poverty, Social Isolation, and Political Behavior
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Moving to Opportunity
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Citizen Participation and the Neighborhood Context
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Neighborhood Disorder and Local Participation
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Not Your Parents' Political Socialization
Political Participation and Neighborhood Social Context Revisited
The Two Income‐Participation Gaps
The Policy Consequences of Class Bias in State Electorates
The Effects of Metropolitan Economic Segregation on Local Civic Participation
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Politics across Generations
The embarrassment of riches? A meta-analysis of individual-level research on voter turnout
Powerlessness and the Amplification of Threat
Can Charter Schools Boost Civic Participation? The Impact of Democracy Prep Public Schools on Voting Behavior
Neighborhood Poverty and African American Politics
Lessons of Welfare
Childhood Skill Development and Adult Political Participation
Family Matters? Voting Behavior in Households with Criminal Justice Contact
Life-Cycle Transitions and Political Participation
Family Structure and Voter Turnout
Political Participation of the Urban Poor
Assessing 'Neighborhood Effects
Moving to Inequality
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |