Happy voters

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liberini, Federica; Redoano, Michela; Proto, Eugenio
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Warwick; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.11.013
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 41-57
• 关键词: subjective well-being; happiness; Retrospective voting

摘要

Empirical models of retrospective voting primarily employ standard monetary and financial indicators to proxy for voters' utility and to explain voters' behavior. We show that subjective well-being explains variation in voting intention that goes beyond what is captured by these monetary and financial indicators. For example, individuals who are satisfied with their life are 1.6% more likely to support the incumbent; by contrast, a 10% increase in family income leads to a 0.18% increase in an individual's support of the incumbent. We use difference-in-differences analysis to identify how voter intention is affected by a negative shock to well-being: the death of a spouse. Individuals who experience the death of a spouse are around 10% less likely than those in the control group to support the incumbent. The results hold even if elected officials' policies (health care, social welfare) cannot reasonably be blamed for the death. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.