Paper short abstract

This paper studies the relation between self-serving elite behaviour and citizen political participation. We use a fixed effects approach to analyze the association between portfolio investment in tax havens and voter turnout

Paper long abstract

Abstract

This paper studies the relation between self-serving elite behaviour and citizen

political participation. We use a fixed effects approach to analyze the association

between portfolio investment in tax havens and voter turnout, using data from

213 parliamentary elections in 65 countries for the period 1998-2014. For

well-functioning democracies, we find a positive relation between the use of

tax havens and voter turnout, suggesting that self-serving elite behaviour is

associated with citizen political mobilization rather than voter apathy.

The estimated relationship is stronger in the period after the 2008 economic crisis,

when elite behaviour was a particularly salient issue.