Infrastructure Expansion, Tourism, and Electoral Outcomes

Abstract

This paper examines the electoral impact of increased foreign tourism, using data from Croatia. I exploit the expansion of a key highway, which significantly reduced travel times to coastal municipalities, to estimate the causal impact of foreign tourism on voting. I find that an increase in foreign tourism reduces nationalist voting, and increases the center-left vote share. In addition, I explore a number of potential mechanisms behind this result, including manufacturing spillovers, demographic shifts within municipalities, and the political alignment of hospitality workers in general.

Keywords: codes: tourism, voting, infrastructure, nationalism