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Title: Human Capital and Voting Behavior across Generations: Evidence from an Income Intervention
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.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1657821
PAR ID:
10286034
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
American Political Science Review
Volume:
114
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0003-0554
Page Range / eLocation ID:
609 to 616
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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