Valuing the Vote: The Redistribution of Voting Rights and State Funds following the Voting Rights Act of 1965

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cascio, Elizabeth U.; Washington, Ebonya
• 署名单位: Dartmouth College; National Bureau of Economic Research; Yale University
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjt028
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 379-433
• 关键词: womens suffrage; POLICY; REPRESENTATION; POLITICS; INEQUALITY; services; turnout; blacks; models; size

摘要

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, called one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history, generated dramatic increases in black voter registration across the South. We ask whether the increase in black voting rights was accompanied by an increase in blacks' share of public spending. We exploit a key provision of the act-removal of literacy tests at registration-for identification. Employing a triple-difference framework over a 20-year period, we find that counties with higher black population shares in former literacy test states saw greater increases in both voter turnout and state transfers than comparison counties in non-literacy test states, a finding that is consistent with models of distributive politics. JEL Codes: D72, H7, I2, J15, N32.