The heterogeneous effects of internet voting

Ciancio, A. and Kämpfen, F. (2023) The heterogeneous effects of internet voting. European Journal of Political Economy, (doi: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2023.102444) (In Press)

Abstract

A decline in voter turnout over the last decades has prompted governments to introduce technological innovations for voting. This paper studies the heterogeneous effects of internet voting on voter turnout and vote shares in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Exploiting across-time and across-municipalities variations during the introduction of internet voting between 2006 and 2013, we find that internet voting increased the turnout of individuals aged 80 and above, particularly of male voters, but did not have any effects on younger individuals. As a result, the vote share of adults aged 80+ relatively increased following the introduction of internet voting. Overall, our study shows that although internet voting does not appear to have an effect on general turnout, it has reweighted the political power of some sociodemographic groups, giving more weight to males and older adults.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: In Press
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ciancio, Dr Alberto
• Authors: Ciancio, A., and Kämpfen, F.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: European Journal of Political Economy
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0176-2680
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5703
• Published Online: 22 July 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
• First Published: First published in European Journal of Political Economy 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy