Endogenous Voter Turnout and Income Redistribution

Abstract

In this paper, a simple model is proposed to endogenize voting behavior that incorporates a sense of duty to vote. We assume that a sense of duty to vote is an increasing function of a person's human capital and the public faith in politics, and those with a higher sense of duty often vote. Then, we examine the relationship between income redistribution policy and human capital accumulation. From our assumption, the voter turnout is expected to gradually increase as human capital accumulates. However, we show that, in some cases, the positive relationship between voter turnout and human capital accumulation is not necessarily hold. In addition, the effect of growing inequality on the redistribution policy is investigated.