Disciplining Ballots? – (Un-intended) Effects of Voter Engagement on the Fiscal Sustainability of Swiss Cantons

We test whether the proactive use of instruments of direct democracy by voters can help to explain fiscal sustainability of 25 Swiss cantons. Using data of all cantonal popular votes since 1977, our results show that the fiscal reaction of cantonal governments to an increase in the debt to GDP ratio of a canton is stronger, the more cantonal voters actively made use of their direct democratic rights in the previous year.

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Year of publication:	2023
Authors:	Bury, Yannick ; Feld, Lars P. ; Köhler, Ekkehard A.
Publisher:	Munich : Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
Subject:	direct democracy \| political process \| fiscal policy

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Series:	CESifo Working Paper ; 10759
Type of publication:	Book / Working Paper
Type of publication (narrower categories):	Working Paper
Language:	English
Other identifiers:	1870664914 [GVK] hdl:10419/282447 [Handle] RePec:ces:ceswps:_10759 [RePEc]
Classification:	H11 - Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; H50 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies. General ; D72 - Economic Models of Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Elections, Legistures, and Voting Behavior
Source:	EconStor

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014469405