Political Conformity: Event-Study Evidence from the United States

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Perez-Truglia, Ricardo
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00683
• 发表日期: 2018-03
• 页码: 14-28
• 关键词: voter turnout; field experiment; incentives; networks; BEHAVIOR; impacts; context

摘要

We propose that individuals are more politically active in more like-minded social environments. To test this hypothesis, we combine administrative data from the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Postal Service. We identify 45,000 individuals who contributed to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and changed residences either before or after the 2012 election cycle.We examine whether living in an area with a higher share of Democrats causes higher contributions to Obama. We find that conformity effects are economically significant. Additionally, we conduct counterfactual analysis that shows that these effects are important for understanding geographic polarization.