Are they willing to participate? A review on behavioral economics approach to voters turnout

Abstract

This article investigates the fundamental factors influencing the rate and manner of Electoral participation with an economic model-based approach. In this study, the structural parameters affecting people's decision making are divided into two categories. The first category includes general topics such as economic and livelihood status, cultural factors and, also, psychological variables. In this section, given that voters are analyzed within the context of consumer behavior theory, inflation and unemployment are considered as the most important economic factors. The second group of factors focuses more on the type of voting, with emphasis on government performance. Since the incumbent government and its supportive voters are in a game with two Nash equilibrium, and also because the voters in most cases are retrospect, the government seeks to keep its position by a deliberate change in economic factors, especially inflation and unemployment rates. Finally, to better understand the issue, a hypothetical example is presented and analyzed in a developing country in the form of a state-owned populist employment plan.

Keywords. Voters turnout, Behavioral economics, Bandwagon effect, Economic voters, Hyperbolic memory discount.

JEL. A13, C70, D11.