Full Citation

Title: Corruption and Voter Turnout: Evidence From Second Generation Americans

Citation Type: Journal Article

Forthcoming?: Yes

ISBN:

ISSN: 0010-4140

DOI: 10.1177/00104140231169025

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: When studying corruption’s consequences for voter turnout, reverse causality hinders identification; corruption may affect turnout, but an engaged citizenry may also improve governance. However, because good instruments are hard to find, most studies do not adjust for the issue. Here, I surmount the endogeneity problem by predicting turnout among second generation Americans with the level of corruption in their ancestral country. The core intuition is that the best predictors of turnout—education, income, and civic duty—are endogenous to corruption, internationally mobile, and reproduced inter-generationally. Thus, corruption in one country can affect turnout among the American-born children of the country’s émigrés. However, because turnout in US elections does not affect corruption in the ancestral country, there is no threat of reverse causality. Estimating the model with data from the Current Population Survey and the Varieties of Democracy Project reveals a statistically robust, substantively sizable negative effect of corruption on turnout.

Url: https://journals-sagepub-com.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/doi/full/10.1177/00104140231169025

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Simmons, Joel W.

Periodical (Full): Comparative Political Studies

Issue:

Volume:

Pages: 1-46

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Other, Population Data Science

Countries: