TY  - JOUR
AU  - Oberholzer-Gee,Felix
AU  - Waldfogel,Joel
TI  - Electoral Acceleration: The Effect of Minority Population on Minority Voter Turnout
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8252
PY  - 2001
Y2  - April 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8252
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8252.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Felix Oberholzer-Gee
Harvard Business School
213 Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-0677
E-Mail: foberholzer@hbs.edu

Joel Waldfogel
Frederick R. Kappel Chair in Applied Economics
3-177 Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota
321 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel: 612/626-7128
E-Mail: jwaldfog@umn.edu
AB  - Political outcomes are well understood to depend on the spatial distribution of citizen preferences. In this paper, we document that the same holds for the individual decision to be politically active. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence on turnout, we show that citizens are more likely to vote if they live in a jurisdiction with a larger number of persons sharing similar political preferences. As a result, changes in the identity of a district's median citizen lead to even larger changes in the identity of its median voter, a phenomenon we term electoral acceleration. We present evidence that electoral acceleration is in part due to the structure of media markets. Candidates find it easier to direct campaign efforts at larger groups because many existing media outlets cater to this audience.
ER  -