SIGN IN
Email
This field is required Password This field is required Sign in
Remember me
Forgot ID or Password?
|
||
Après Nous Le Déluge? Direct Democracy and Intergenerational Conflicts in Ageing SocietiesGabriel M. AhlfeldtLondon School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Geography and Environment Wolfgang MaennigUniversity of Hamburg - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Malte SteenbeckUniversity of Hamburg - School of Business, Economics and Social Sciences February 29, 2016 CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5779 Abstract: To assess the likely effects of population ageing on the outcomes of direct democracy, we analyze the effect of age on voting decisions in public referenda. To this end, we provide the first quantitative review of the literature and a case study of the Stuttgart 21 referendum on one of the largest infrastructure projects in Germany. The evidence suggests that intergenerational conflicts arising from population ageing will likely be limited to areas in which the net present value differs particularly strongly across generations, such as education and health spending, green energy, and major transport projects. In such instances, however, the effect can be quantitatively relevant, raising the question of whether, as population ageing progresses, decisions should be based on social cost-benefit analyses, instead of referenda.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 60 Keywords: ageing, direct democracy, intergenerational conflict, NIMBY, referendum, Stuttgart 21, transport, voting JEL Classification: D610, D620, H410, H710, L830, I180, R410, R580 Date posted: March 24, 2016Suggested CitationContact Information
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
