It's the Occupation, Stupid! Explaining Candidates' Success in Low-Information Elections
34 Pages Posted: 5 Oct 2011
Date Written: October 5, 2011
Abstract
Do voters use ballot paper information on the personal characteristics of political candidates as cues in low-information elections? Using a unique dataset containing 4423 political candidates from recent local elections in Germany, we show that candidates' occupations do play a decisive role in their electoral success. The occupational impact is far greater than gender or doctoral degree effects for a large number of occupations. We discuss two possible explanations for these 'occupational effects': an occupation's public reputation and the extent to which individuals carrying out certain occupations are known within their communities. Looking at polls on the reputation/prestige of certain jobs, we find a strong correlation between an occupation's reputation and the electoral success of a candidate carrying out this occupation. Therefore, voters appear to use occupational reputation as a cue in low-information elections.
Keywords: low-information elections, informational cues, local elections, occupational reputation, political economy
JEL Classification: D72, D7
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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