Policy Feedback and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment (doi:10.7910/DVN/RL5N9Y)

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Part 1: Document Description
Part 2: Study Description
Part 3: Data Files Description
Part 4: Variable Description
Part 5: Other Study-Related Materials
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Policy Feedback and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment

doi:10.7910/DVN/RL5N9Y

Harvard Dataverse

2024-08-09

1

Schafer, Jerome, 2024, "Policy Feedback and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/RL5N9Y, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:ivB4wRXTXXeesGlLpAnXbg== [fileUNF]

Policy Feedback and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment

doi:10.7910/DVN/RL5N9Y

Schafer, Jerome (LMU Munich)

Jerome Schafer

Harvard Dataverse

Enter your name

Schafer, Jerome

2024-01-06

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/RL5N9Y

Social Sciences, Voter Turnout; Field Experiment; Basic Income

In many democracies, unemployed and low-income citizens are less willing to vote. Can social policies weaken the link between income and turnout? We study policy feedback leveraging a unique experiment in Finland, which randomly assigned a sizable group of unemployed to receiving an unconditional basic income for two years (2017-19). Combining individual-level registry and survey data, we show that the intervention has large positive effects on voter turnout. Unconditional basic income increases turnout in municipal elections by about 3 p.p., on average, an effect that is concentrated among marginal voters (+ 6-8 p.p.) and persists in national elections after the end of the experiment. Exploring possible mechanisms, our analysis highlights the role of the interpretive effects that follow from unconditionality in the bureaucratic process, including higher levels of political trust and efficacy. We discuss implications for theories of voter turnout and policy feedback, and the design of basic income policies.

This dataset underwent an independent verification process, complying with the AJPS Verification Policy updated June 2023, which replicated the tables and figures in the primary article. For the supplementary materials, verification was performed solely for the successful execution of the code. The verification process was carried out by the Cornell Center for Social Sciences at Cornell University. <br></br> The associated article has been awarded the Open Materials Badge. Learn more about the Open Practice Badges from the <a href="https://www.cos.io/">Center for Open Science</a>. <br></br> <img src="https://socialsciences.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/2024-04/materials_large_color.png" alt="Open Materials Badge " width="60" height="60"> <br></br> Open Materials Badge

See DataAccess.pdf for the list of data sources.

The <i>American Journal of Political Science</i> and the Cornell Center for Social Sciences are not responsible for the accuracy or quality of data uploaded within the <i>AJPS</i> Dataverse, for the use of those data, or for interpretations or conclusions based on their use.

• Number of cases: 586

• No. of variables per record: 9

• Type of File: text/tab-separated-values

UNF:6:NgCEliVJM9hycEy5MVnNLg==

• Number of cases: 1597

• No. of variables per record: 19

• Type of File: text/tab-separated-values

UNF:6:RIn5F0CA9YmPIxzk/0iZ9w==

• mun_name - mun_name
• population - Population
• tertiary_educ - Share of tertiary educated
• employment_rate - Employment rate
• unemployment_rate - Unemployment rate
• turnout - Voter turnout
• elregshr - Share of voting areas in electronic election register
• _merge - Matching result from merge
• year - Year
• fsd_id - Individual id
• treated - BI Treatment
• vote - Voting Intention
• internal_efficacy - Standardized Internal Efficacy
• trust_parliament - Standardized Trust in Parliament
• trust_people - Standardized Trust Other People
• trust_politicians - Standardized Trust Politicians
• stress - Standardized Currently Feeling Stressed
• health - Standardized General Health
• male - Binary Variable for Male
• age_group - Variable for Age Groups
• education - Variable for Education Groups
• SES - Variable for SES (Occupation) Groups
• incgroups - Variable for Income Groups
• educgroups - Variable for Education Groups (Categories Matching Admin Data)
• pvote - Vote Intention Prediction (Logit)
• marginal - 25th-75th Percentile Voting Intention Group
• never - Bottom 25 Percentile Voting Intention Group
• always - Top 25 Percentile Voting Intention Group

f10422480 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:U+BIpFi/L3qEVAsTwQ3Ihg==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 586.0; StDev 49590.52668427398; Min. 734.0; Max. 643272.0; Mean 18702.10238907851

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:L8m1eKnVy7jjE2kBRKoU3A==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 586.0; StDev 0.06425023714184841; Min. 0.111; Max. 0.5760000000000001; Mean 0.22992150170648465

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:ZARrU0uvZNMXKvsXUkUWLg==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Max. 0.838; Valid 586.0; StDev 0.055602380150433145; Mean 0.6992320819112628; Min. 0.561

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:1QG2+C0Wh/Y8PlPeKUGaiQ==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Max. 0.207; Valid 586.0; Mean 0.11410238907849829; Min. 0.03; StDev 0.03555311078640292

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:NEnlHx1PGZ1kI9iROcZSow==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Max. 0.826; Min. 0.493; StDev 0.053422666279632235; Valid 586.0; Mean 0.6164232081911263

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:6sGdWByBvIOezyERpjP/vQ==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Mean 81.88599221789885; Max. 100.0; StDev 28.1130147776891; Valid 257.0; Min. 0.9

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:O7d8zoHQ0eiByrRxq8Jh6Q==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 586.0; Min. 1.0; Mean 1.8771331058020473; StDev 0.9932710216368426; Max. 3.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:D8ZjLIYGYjh3PTa1bPlNrA==

f10422480 Location:

Summary Statistics: Mean 2018.0; Max. 2019.0; Valid 586.0; StDev 1.0008543359097775; Min. 2017.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:revl6fmoYFCLLPAxdZrFrw==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 1597.0; Min. 1.0; Max. 1597.0; Mean 799.0; StDev 461.1585049271743

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:5uW+8SZyNVW8krG6QxrLcw==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Mean 0.3562930494677524; StDev 0.4790532478950872; Valid 1597.0; Max. 1.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:bjJfEVHYphLsGtKiN2JfZw==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: StDev 0.42315622713841045; Min. 0.0; Valid 1555.0; Max. 1.0; Mean 0.7665594855305468;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:wyzc5kOowcsUqyPmjj5J3g==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. -1.3427233695983887; Valid 1541.0; Mean 9.82451636916065E-9; StDev 1.0000000077654752; Max. 1.8915661573410034;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:ec9I+kurtwaTVxf1eTx8+g==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. -1.6321532726287842; Mean -1.439652217658608E-8; Max. 1.9194594621658325; Valid 1565.0; StDev 1.0000000075051103

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:+drwQlc3z1oXRcx6BPf1Lw==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 1590.0; Max. 1.4562976360321045; Mean -9.371800749842203E-11; Min. -2.6448593139648438; StDev 0.9999999783007253

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:esfol0cSTXu1jrU+p3D4xQ==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Mean 1.9771958638633577E-9; StDev 0.9999999821055816; Max. 2.251650333404541; Valid 1561.0; Min. -1.4744454622268677;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:Sv9vGWVhZne6potvi4xmCQ==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Mean 2.3916598604737013E-9; StDev 1.0000000035370553; Min. -1.3573657274246216; Max. 2.036048650741577; Valid 1595.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:GwAyYEUCTntulHUTfx7jVA==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 1590.0; StDev 0.9999999896688399; Max. 1.6134567260742188; Mean 1.9118474297756915E-9; Min. -2.455371618270874

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:6LWHBPxFjy0bNdNm1V/Lsg==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. 1.0; Valid 1597.0; Max. 2.0; StDev 0.4997672884347375; Mean 1.519724483406387

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:yLltzSeTL4ia8eSUjzBQ8Q==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: StDev 1.2386369255588794; Max. 6.0; Valid 1597.0; Min. 1.0; Mean 4.391984971822166

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:ab9dR5L/R2FxLiLeNVmgtQ==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. 1.0; Mean 2.9674389480275525; Max. 6.0; StDev 1.681818375578048; Valid 1597.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:gYCiPhi7eJn2+WQXm0z1ZA==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: StDev 1.6993919171131189; Min. 1.0; Mean 4.270507201001879; Max. 7.0; Valid 1597.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:4ZsNqKNP7TUYf2r9EFwXkg==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Mean 2.5691922354414523; Min. 1.0; Max. 9.0; StDev 2.1910052307200067; Valid 1597.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:UbM3f+pcVIC5+vV74GNhbg==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Max. 6.0; Mean 3.718221665623044; Min. 3.0; Valid 1597.0; StDev 1.1011499313830682;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:FrbXWxJ6RoYd6Wcb2sm/xQ==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 1594.0; Mean 0.7668383708001679; Max. 0.92598557472229; StDev 0.10597236828719643; Min. 0.44655418395996094

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:COGEyl3du38cKK+Hcmdong==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: StDev 0.4998257050178875; Mean 0.5181932245922211; Max. 1.0; Min. 0.0; Valid 1594.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:NUrEv488M6whHSQJH2GyiA==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; Valid 1594.0; Min. 0.0; Mean 0.23086574654956096; StDev 0.4215189444240034

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:9rdUyhVgNL50KMyzuOh0rw==

f10422453 Location:

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.2509410288582185; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.4336907033242135; Valid 1594.0; Min. 0.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:02tWB+uP9iXuJmVYvBsZzA==

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