Victor Ellenbroek received the John Sullivan Award for the best paper by a graduate student on the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior (EPOVB)-sponsored panel at APSA's 2023 Annual Meeting for his paper, 'The effect of more choice on voter turnout: Causal evidence from Germany', published in German Politics.
The paper examines the effects of candidate-centred voting on voter turnout, hence studying the important question of how electoral systems can shape participation. The paper's theoretical argument builds on rational choice theory as well as work that has shown the impact of cognitively challenging choices on voters' electoral behaviour. Leveraging changes in electoral rules in Bremen and Hamburg, and using a difference-in-differences design, the paper then attempts to infer the causal effect of the electoral reforms on participation. The empirical part of the paper, that combines aggregate- and individual-level data and includes a series of robustness tests, demonstrates great rigour. The committee believes that this is a paper with much potential, and wishes to congratulate Victor for this excellent work.
In reacting to receiving the award, Victor shared: "I am very honoured to receive the award. Many thanks to the committee, my supervisors, and all of my colleagues who helped me along the way with this paper. I learned a lot while writing it."
The award will be presented at the business meeting of the EPOVB section, which will take place at APSA on 6 September 2024.