Abstract

We measure the magnitude of economic voting during the great depression. We use the heterogeneity across counties in the exposure to exchange rate changes driven by the departure from the gold standard of US trading partners in 1931 and the US in 1933. We control for the aggregate effects these events trigger using time-fixed effects. We estimate significant changes in local voting behavior in response to local economic shocks. The response of electoral outcomes in both episodes is similar in magnitude, although only the depreciation of 1933 was a direct consequence of the actions of the US government.