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Publications
  • 2023
  • Working Paper

The Effect of Childhood Environment on Political Behavior: Evidence from Young U.S. Movers, 1992–2021

By: Jacob R. Brown, Enrico Cantoni, Sahil Chinoy, Martin Koenen and Vincent Pons
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:77
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Abstract

We ask how childhood environment shapes political behavior. We measure young voters’ participation and party affiliation in nationally comprehensive voter files and reconstruct their childhood location histories based on their parents’ addresses. We compare outcomes of individuals who moved between the same origin and destination counties but at different ages. Those who spend more time in the destination are more influenced by it: Growing up in a county where their peers are 10 percentage points more likely to become Republicans makes them 4.7 percentage points more likely to become Republican themselves upon entering the electorate. The effects are of similar magnitude for Democratic partisanship and turnout. These exposure effects are primarily driven by teenage years, and they persist but decay after the first election. They reflect both state-level factors and factors varying at a smaller scale such as peer effects.

Keywords

Political Parties; Government and Politics; Age; Residency; Voting

Citation

Brown, Jacob R., Enrico Cantoni, Sahil Chinoy, Martin Koenen, and Vincent Pons. "The Effect of Childhood Environment on Political Behavior: Evidence from Young U.S. Movers, 1992–2021." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 31759, October 2023.
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About The Author

Vincent Pons

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News By: Vincent Pons, Jesse M. Shapiro, Bharat Anand and Susan Pinckney
  • Causes and Extent of Increasing Partisan Segregation in the U.S. – Evidence from Migration Patterns of 212 Million Voters By: Jacob R. Brown, Enrico Cantoni, Vincent Pons and Emilie Sartre
  • The Marshall Plan: The Politics and Economics of Europe's Recovery After World War II By: Vincent Pons, Marco Tabellini and Vestal McIntyre
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