🏛️《Politics: Decoded by Data ⑤》💸 "Welfare in, votes out?"
💰 Does Welfare Really Buy Votes?
— Let’s Measure the Price of a Vote 💸🗳️
📊 Can Government Handouts Influence Elections? Let's Unpack the Data!
Hello, I'm the Data Whizard 🧙♂️ — exposing politics one number at a time.
Have you heard people say, “Old folks vote for whoever gives them money”?
At first, I thought it was just dinner table gossip…
But is it true? Does money influence political support?
Let’s strip away the feelings and opinions, and look purely at the data.
So I turned to the KLoSA Aging Panel — 6,100 elderly respondents.
We examined their pension status and support for the ruling party, and explored the link between the two using logistic regression.
Ready to discover the price of political loyalty? 💥💰🗳️ Let’s go.
📊 Methodology: Does Welfare Really Win Votes?
📋 Variables: 🗳️ party_support (ruling party support), 💰 pension (pension receipt), ⏳ age (age)
📌 Stata Command: logit party_support pension age
🧙♂️ Statistical Spell Recipe:
📈 Result Summary: Yes, Welfare Boosts Ruling Party Support
💥 According to the logistic regression, receiving a pension significantly increases the probability of supporting the ruling party (p < 0.01).
When seniors receive financial help, many feel grateful and seen — and that emotion may show up on the ballot.
Numbers are cold, but inside them lie warm human emotions. 🧓❤️🗳️
👧 Explain Like I'm 10
👵 “Grandma receives money from the government every month — like a pension or social support. This helps her pay for things like medicine, groceries, and daily needs. Because of that, she feels grateful, thinking, ‘Someone out there cares about me.’ So when it’s time to vote, she might remember that feeling. She might choose to vote for the same party or politicians who helped her. It’s like saying thank you with her vote — a way to return the favor.”
👉 The key idea: People who receive government benefits often feel supported or cared for, which can influence them to vote for the politicians who provided those benefits
📊 Charting the Welfare–Voting Connection
😭 "The grandma without pension had no one to thank. Her hand hesitated at the voting booth."
😊 "But the one who received it? She remembered — and voted with her heart."
📈 "That vote wasn’t just about money. It was about memory, trust, and human connection."
📚 References
- KLoSA Panel Survey
- Stata 17.0 Logistic Regression Manual
- Gelman, A. & Hill, J. (2006). Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models.
- Min, S. (2011). Welfare Policy and Election Outcomes in Korea. Legislative Studies, 34, 29–62.
- Kim, T. (2025). Gen Z Welfare Attitudes by Gender and Ideology. Journal of International Politics, 28(1), 203–229.
🎬 Stay Tuned for the Next Episode!
“Welfare buys loyalty” — backed by data.
👉 Next time: “🎓 Are elites really more liberal? Let's dissect education and ideology — with numbers!”
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🧙♂️ The Data Whizard®
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