Voter Turnout and policy choices: evidence from Brazil

• Grant number: 14/12041-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 15, 2014
• End date: March 14, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Coutinho Costa Lima
• Grantee: Raphael Guinâncio Bruce
• Supervisor: Filipe R. Campante
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/19460-1 - Voter Turnout and Policy Choices: Evidence from Brazil, BP.MS

Abstract

In this paper we investigate economic consequences of mandatory voting laws through an analysis of the impacts of the current legislation in Brazil on the candidates' political platforms and on the election outcomes. We develop a theoretical framework which allows us to examine how measures that affect the net expense of voting impact both the voter turnout and the political positions candidates take. As an illustration of the lessons learned from this model, we provide an empirical exercise using data from brazilian mayoral elections in order to check how different proportions of citizens to which voting is not mandatory affect the political platforms chosen by the politicians. The heterogeneity on the net expense of voting created by the current legislation, which allows part of population to choose whether or not to go to the ballots, makes this exercise possible and enables us to shed light on the economic consequences of compulsory voting. (AU)