Economic policies, labour unions and voter turnout in the advanced industrial democracies

Purpose This study aims to study the impact of unionisation of voter turnout, with unionisation instrumented with a measure of the nature of economic policy. Design/methodology/approach The study made use of IV regression and panel data. Findings Using a nation-level panel of data relative to 20 advanced industrial democracies observed between 1960 and 2015, the empirical results of the IV regression of this paper show that economic policies determine the socio-economic conditions which influence the size of the labour unions, which, in turn, determine voter turnout. Originality/value No paper attempted to account for what influences unionisation when examining the relationship between unionisation and voter turnout.