Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223777 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13335
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We analyze the consequences of the decision of French government to maintain the first round of the municipal elections on March 15, 2020 on local excess mortality in the following weeks. We exploit heterogeneity across municipalities in voter turnout, which we instrument using a measure of the intensity of local competition. The results reveal that a higher turnout was associated with a significantly higher death counts for the elderly population in the five weeks after the elections. If the historically low turnout in 2020 had been at its 2014 level, the number of deaths would have been 21.8 percent higher than the one that was recorded. More than three quarters of these additional deaths would have occurred among the individuals aged 80 and above.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
excess mortality
voter turnout
intensity of electoral competition
municipal-level data
JEL: 
J11
D72
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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