Economic hardship and Political Participation: A Longitudinal Analysis of British Voters

Research on the association between economic hardship and political participation puts forward contrasting theoretical expectations and empirical findings on the direction of the relationship and the reasons behind it. The bulk of this research relies on cross-sectional designs that fall short of capturing causal mechanisms. In this paper we aim at advancing extant research by investigating the effect of economic hardship measured both as income loss and perceptions of income loss on electoral registration and turnout. Drawing on a longitudinal analysis of the British electorate using the British Election Study panel (2014-2021) we employ individual fixed effects models that allow for assessing the association between hardship and participation, net of individual heterogeneity. We further investigate whether the relationship between economic hardship and political participation differs among ethnic minorities compared to the majority. Our findings have implications for our understanding of both economic hardship and models of political participation.