Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name:  Lo Prete, Anna
Author-Email: anna.loprete@unito.it
Author-Name:  Revelli, Federico
Author-Email: federico.revelli@unito.it
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Turin
Author-Workplace-Homepage: http://www.est.unito.it/
Title: Voter Turnout and City Performance.
Abstract: We study the impact of exogenous variation in Italian municipal elections' voter turnout rates on city 
performance scores and elected mayors'indicators of valence. 
First, we build a simple model of voluntary and costly expressive voting, where the relative weight of ideology and 
valence issues over voting costs determines how people vote, and if they actually turn out to vote. 
We show that the cost of voting depresses voter turnout, yet can raise the chances of selecting higher valence 
candidates and thereby improve government performance. Empirically, city performance is measured along a number of 
dimensions including a unique index of overall urban environmental quality, and mayors'valence is proxied by 
variables refecting their professional experience and competence.
The staggered nature of the municipal election schedule allows us to exploit exogenous variation in voter turnout 
rates through the 2000s due to the presence of concomitant regional, general and European parliament elections, 
and to weather conditions (rainfall) on the election day. The results from a number of speciÖcations and quality of 
policy-making indicators consistently point to a negative impact of voter turnout rates on the performance of cities 
and the valence of mayors.
Length: 40 pages
Creation-Date: 2014-10
File-URL: http://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/Download?doc=/allegati/wp2014dip/wp_35_2014.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:201435