The Role of Society on Electoral Turnout: Evidence from Expats' Voting Behaviour

This paper analyses the role of society on individuals' electoral participation by exploiting unique microdata on Chilean expats registered to vote in the 2017 Chilean Presidential election. We study how electoral participation in 2014 EU parliament election impacts Chilean expats voting behavior. By exploiting a transitory shock to the cost of voting, EU election day rainfall in the host country, we show that a one percentage point increase in host country's turnout decreases electoral participation in Chilean expats by 1 percentage point. This result seems to be driven by social pressures towards expats not to vote in their home country election. We observe larger impact of the host country's turnout on communities that are more welcoming towards migrants and for Chilean expats that have been living in the host country for longer.