Do inheritance rules affect voter turnout? Evidence from an Alpine region

Abstract

We examine the relationship between inheritance rules and voter turnout. Inheritance rules are measured by entailed farms in South Tyrol: land properties whose inheritance is regulated by a law similar to the right of primogeniture. Using data for municipalities between 1998 and 2010, we show that voter turnout is high in municipalities with many entailed farms relative to population. The effect is based on local elections. If the number of entailed farms per 100 inhabitants increases by one standard deviation, voting turnout in municipal and provincial elections increases by around 1.27 and 1.43 percentage points (around 25 and 35% of a standard deviation). Our results suggest that entailed farm owners themselves are more likely to vote, and that entailed farms owners encourage other citizens of their municipality to participate in local elections.

Testing Todd: family types and development

“…Schulz (2020) studies the effects of regulating consanguineous marriage and finds that countries in which this practice is prohibited display significantly higher democracy scores, higher rates of political participation, and higher institutional quality than other countries. Bonoldi et al (2020) find that in South Tyrol (a region in Northern Italy that is influenced by both Italian and Germanic tradition and, thus, by competing inheritance rules), villages with an inheritance rule similar to primogeniture display higher voter turnout. Galasso and Profeta (2018) analyze the timing of the introduction of state-run pension systems and their generosity vis-à-vis pensioners.…”

Compulsory voting and political participation: Empirical evidence from Austria

“…Adjacent municipalities in the border region of two states are relatively more compa- 1 On voting and civic duty see Bonoldi et al (2019) and François and Gergaud (2019). rable in unobservable characteristics than the average of all municipalities.…”