13NFL1-Compulsory Voting Page 61 of 163 www.victorybriefs.com STUDIES PROVE THAT COMPULSORY VOTING IMPROVES INCOME INEQUALITY. Chong and Olivera 08, Alberto
Chong Research Department, Inter-American Development Bank and Mauricio Olivera, "Does Compulsory
Voting Help Equality Incomes, Economics & Politics, Volume 20, November 2008. In this paper we study the relationship between compulsory-voting laws and the distribution of income. The existing empirical
literature has focused, on the one hand, on the effect of voting laws on the size and composition of public expenditure and taxes.
On the other hand, the existing empirical literature from development economics has focused on the determinants of income distribution. This article uses both literatures to motivate a reduced- form empirical approach, expanding the literature by focusing on the robustness of the partial correlation between compulsory-voting laws and indicators
of income inequality, in particular, the Gini index. Furthermore, we believe that the use of systematic sensitivity analyses adds credibility to our findings. Our analysis suggests that the effect of compulsory voting on income distribution is strong if the law is strictly enforced. Enforceable compulsory-voting laws compel the bottom- income quintiles of the population to vote. In this scenario the median voter would be the population that prefers higher transfers and redistribution programs.
If the law is enforced, the effect is an improved distribution of income.
