Hunter Rendleman, "Financial Stress, Social Networks, and Political Participation: Evidence from Social Security Benefit Cycles"
A mature literature in political science argues that political participation is a function of the "resources'' an individual has: their income, free time, and civic skills. Since Brady, Verba, and Schlozman's landmark studies, however, disentangling the relative causal effect of each of these factors has remained difficult for scholars. In this paper, we exploit retirees' as-if random assignment to monthly Social Security benefit paydays to assess the role of the pay cycle on both attitudes and costly political behaviors. Using voter file records on over 42 million senior citizens from 2012 to 2021, we find that, indeed, being paid closer to reduced pay cycle stress leads elderly individuals to participate more. We add nuance to our findings by then using Federal Emergency Management Agency data on the addresses of assisted living homes to assess how free time and social network effects (our proxy for the development of civic skills) moderate the classic pocketbook to election booth pathway.
The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00 - 2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.
All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.
LOCATION:CGIS Knafel, room K354 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20230404T160000Z DTEND:20230404T180000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR