Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/93304 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7934
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The causes of people's political attitudes are largely unknown. We study this issue by exploiting longitudinal data on lottery winners. Comparing people before and after a lottery windfall, we show that winners tend to switch towards support for a right-wing political party and to become less egalitarian. The larger the win, the more people tilt to the right. This relationship is robust to (i) different ways of defining right-wing, (ii) a variety of estimation methods, and (iii) methods that condition on the person previously having voted left. It is strongest for males. Our findings are consistent with the view that voting is driven partly by human self-interest. Money apparently makes people more right-wing.
Subjects: 
voting
gender
lottery wins
political preferences
income
attitudes
JEL: 
D1
D72
H1
J7
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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