Concurrent elections and turnout: Causal estimates from a German quasi-experiment

• I estimate the causal effect of concurrent elections on turnout.
• I make use of a quasi-experiment at the German municipality level.
• I use a difference-in-differences approach.
• The results show that combining two low-office elections significantly increases turnout.

Conventional wisdom suggests that scheduling elections concurrently with other contests increases turnout. However, causal empirical evidence in favor of this claim is scarce, at best. Moreover, it is a priori unclear whether theory would predict a higher turnout if two low-office elections are combined instead of a combination of a low-office election and a major electoral race. Using a quasi-experiment and a difference-in-differences estimation approach at the German municipality-level, I provide evidence that combining two low-office elections significantly increases turnout.