A Natural Experiment on Discrimination in Elections
Name
A natural experiment on discrimination in elections.pdf
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1.01 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Broockman, David
Soltas, Evan
Date Issued
August 2020
Journal
Journal of Public Economics
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We exploit a natural experiment to study discrimination in elections. In Illinois Republican presidential primaries, voters vote for delegates bound to presidential candidates, but delegates' names convey information about their race and gender. We identify discrimination from variation in vote totals among delegates bound to the same presidential candidate and who face the same voters. Examining delegate vote totals from 2000 to 2016, we estimate nonwhite delegates receive 9 percent fewer votes. We find essentially no gender discrimination. Negligible incentives for statistical discrimination, costs to preferred presidential candidates, and heterogeneity are consistent with an interpretation of this behavior as taste-based.
Subjects
Racial Discrimination
Voter Behavior
Taste-Based Discrimination JEL Codes: D72
J15
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104201
