Do inheritance rules affect voter turnout? Evidence from an Alpine region
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Do inheritance rules affect voter turnout? Evidence from an Alpine region Andrea Bonoldi1 · Chiara Dalle Nogare2 · Martin Mosler3 · Niklas Potrafke3
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract We examine the relationship between inheritance rules and voter turnout. Inheritance rules are measured by entailed farms in South Tyrol: land properties whose inheritance is regulated by a law similar to the right of primogeniture. Using data for municipalities between 1998 and 2010, we show that voter turnout is high in municipalities with many entailed farms relative to population. The effect is based on local elections. If the number of entailed farms per 100 inhabitants increases by one standard deviation, voting turnout in municipal and provincial elections increases by around 1.27 and 1.43 percentage points (around 25 and 35% of a standard deviation). Our results suggest that entailed farm owners themselves are more likely to vote, and that entailed farms owners encourage other citizens of their municipality to participate in local elections. Keywords Entailed farms · Voter turnout · Inheritance rules · Identity · Civic duty JEL Classification · D72 · K11 · Q15 · H70 · Z19
* Martin Mosler [email protected] Andrea Bonoldi [email protected] Chiara Dalle Nogare [email protected] Niklas Potrafke [email protected] 1
Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Via Inama, 5, 38122 Trento, Italy
2
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Via San Faustino 74/b, 25122 Brescia, Italy
3
Ifo Institute, Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, University of Munich, Poschingerstrasse 5, 81679 Munich, Germany
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A. Bonoldi et al.
1 Introduction Since Downs (1957) formulated the paradox of voting, highlighting the incompatibility of rational behavior with voting when one’s decision is not pivotal and voting is costly, many studies have investigated the paradox of voting [see the surveys by Geys (2006), and Cancela and Geys (2016)].1 In fact, it is rather unlikely that the high voter turnout one observes in the real world is the consequence of irrational behavior. Aldrich (1993) proposed that the rationality of voting should be considered in the light of long-term political values and preferences, and Schuessler (2000) suggested the way out of the impasse by drawing from social theory and anthropology. We follow their suggestions and examine the determinants of voter turnout in a specific geographical context: South Tyrol, an Italian autonomous province on the border with Austria. Cultural traits have been shown to determine citizens’ behaviour (Bisin and Verdier 2001). We investigate whether an aspect of culture, namely family types as measured by inheritance rules, predicts voter turnout in South Tyrol. South Tyrol is a suitable environment to examine the nexus between inheritance rules and voter turnout. First, voter turnout has been high in South Tyrol: around 82% in municipal, 86% in provincial and 87% in national elections in the years 1998–2010. Up until the
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