Political Conformity: Event-Study Evidence from the United States
研究发现，个人在政治观点更相似的环境中会更积极参与政治活动，通过分析奥巴马竞选捐款数据，证实从众效应显著影响捐款行为，并有助于理解地理极化现象。
We propose that individuals are more politically active in more like-minded social environments. To test this hypothesis, we combine administrative data from the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Postal Service. We identify 45, 000 individuals who contributed to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and changed residences either before or after the 2012 election cycle.We examine whether living in an area with a higher share of Democrats causes higher contributions to Obama. We find that conformity effects are economically significant. Additionally, we conduct counterfactual analysis that shows that these effects are important for understanding geographic polarization.