Università della Svizzera italiana

Natural disasters and electoral outcomes

Masiero, Giuliano ; Santarossa, Michael

In: European Journal of Political Economy, 2021, vol. 67, p. 19 p

Natural disasters are good examples of catastrophic events that may affect vote decisions. In this study, we analyze how the occurrence of earthquakes changes voters' behavior at municipal elections and which channels drive this change, focusing in particular on the role of media exposure. We exploit data from 13,338 municipal electoral cycles where incumbents seek reelection between 1993 and...