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Taxes and Turnout

Author

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  • Bierbrauer, Felix
  • Tsyvinski, Aleh
  • Werquin, Nicolas
Abstract
We develop a model of political competition with endogenous platform choices of parties and endogenous turnout. A main finding is that a party that is leading in the polls has an incentive to cater primarily to the core voters of the opposing party. A party that is lagging behind, by contrast, has an incentive to cater to its own base. We analyze the implications for redistributive taxation and characterize the political weights that competing parties assign to voters with different incomes. Finally, we relate the comparative statics predictions of our model to the asymmetric demobilization strategy in the German elections in the era of Merkel.

Suggested Citation

  • Bierbrauer, Felix & Tsyvinski, Aleh & Werquin, Nicolas, 2019. "Taxes and Turnout," TSE Working Papers 19-1050, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:123701
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Alger, Ingela & Laslier, Jean-François & Dierks, Konrad, 2021. "Does universalization ethics justify participation in large elections?," IAST Working Papers 21-122, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), revised Apr 2024.
    2. Alberto Grillo, 2020. "Ethical Voting in Heterogenous Groups," Working Papers halshs-02962464, HAL.
    3. Martin F. Hellwig, 2021. "Social Choice in Large Populations with Single-Peaked Preferences," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2021_18, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    4. Ingela Alger & Jean-François Laslier, 2021. "Homo moralis goes to the voting booth: a new theory of voter turnout," Working Papers hal-03163438, HAL.
    5. Alberto Grillo, 2020. "Ethical Voting in Heterogenous Groups," AMSE Working Papers 2034, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised Apr 2021.
    6. Kaba, Mustafa, 2022. "Who buys vote-buying? How, how much, and at what cost?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 98-124.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political competition; Income Taxation; Turnout.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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