Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/176877 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
ifo Working Paper No. 257
Publisher: 
ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Munich
Abstract: 
Voter turnout has declined in many countries, raising the question of whether electoral institutions increase voter turnout. We exploit an electoral reform in the Austrian state of Burgenland as a natural experiment to identify the causal effect of polling station opening hours on voter turnout. The results show that a 10 percent increase in opening hours increased voter turnout by some 0.5 to 0.9 percentage points. The reform also influenced party vote shares. The vote share of the conservative party decreased in the course of the reform, while the vote shares of the other three main parties increased. Conservative voters tend to have an especially strict sense of civic duty and would have participated in the election in any event. Simulations indicate that parliamentary majorities in previous elections would have changed under extended opening hours in favor of the social democratic party. The opening hours of polling stations probably play a more important role in political strategies than recognized to date.
Subjects: 
Voter turnout
party vote shares
opening hours of polling stations
causal effects
natural experiment
Austria.
JEL: 
D72
D02
Z18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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