Compulsory voting increases men's turnout most

Abstract Equal turnout fosters equal representation. As such, researchers have long sought to understand what causes gender differences in voter participation. I argue that compulsory voting increases men's turnout relative to that of women. This is because men are particularly receptive to external incentives, while women are more intrinsically motivated. Within Brazil and across countries, I use administrative data to show that compulsory voting increases men's turnout most. I also argue that, due to social desirability bias, nonvoting women are most likely to claim to have participated under mandatory voting. With comparisons of official and reported turnout, I demonstrate compulsory voting increases women's turnout overreporting relative to that of men. By increasing men's relative turnout, compulsory voting could introduce or accentuate representational disparities in favor of men, and this potentiality can be obscured by survey data.