It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections
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In: European Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 33, 03.2014, p. 53-70.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections
AU - Mechtel, Mario
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - 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 elections in Germany, we show that candidates' occupations do play an important 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 three possible explanations for these "occupational effects": (a) an occupation's public reputation, (b) the extent to which individuals carrying out certain occupations are known within their communities, and (c) occupation specific competence related to issues relevant for local politics. 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.
AB - 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 elections in Germany, we show that candidates' occupations do play an important 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 three possible explanations for these "occupational effects": (a) an occupation's public reputation, (b) the extent to which individuals carrying out certain occupations are known within their communities, and (c) occupation specific competence related to issues relevant for local politics. 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.
KW - Informational shortcuts
KW - Low-information elections
KW - Occupational reputation
KW - Political economy
KW - Economics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84890936895&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/4cfb9e73-82f2-3241-a7b2-aebe18056abe/
U2 - 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2013.11.008
DO - 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2013.11.008
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:84890936895
VL - 33
SP - 53
EP - 70
JO - European Journal of Political Economy
JF - European Journal of Political Economy
SN - 0176-2680
ER -