The tenure gap in electoral participation: instrumental motivation or selection bias? Comparing homeowners and tenants across four housing regimes

What is it about?

Homeowners are expected to be more politically and socially active because they have a stake in the political system through homeownership. We research this relationship for the US and 18 European countries and control for selection bias through matching. We find that homeowners do have a higher likelihood to vote, however, this relationship is more pronounced in countries in which homeownership is an investment and part of this relationship can be explained by characteristics that make people more likely to vote and more likely to become a homeowner.

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Why is it important?

The relationship between homeownership and voting has previously been researched mainly in the US and we extent the research to Europe. Furthermore, by including more countries we can assess the role of the countries national and political system and housing dynamics on this relationship.