Wednesday WIP with Harry Krashinsky: "Why do we vote? Some quasi-experimental evidence"

Abstract: There is a large theoretical literature on the factors that motivate voting participation rates, but comparatively few empirical papers that present plausibly causal estimates to test these theories.  The work presented during this WIP hopes to fill this gap by presenting empirical evidence on voting participation rates in the two most recent Canadian federal elections.  By exploiting changes in electoral boundaries between the 2011 and 2015 elections, a difference-in-differences framework will be used to demonstrate how voting participation rates are causally impacted by factors such as: candidate incumbency, the margin of victory in the electoral district, and the ideological similarity of particular voters with the rest of the electoral district.

Please RSVP to director.cirhr@utoronto.ca