The Neighbourhood Law in Barcelona: Effects on Election Turnout Rates

The study aims to examine the Neighbourhood Law’s effects on the elections turnout rates. This variable was selected as a proxy for social capital, one of the features the policy aimed to promote. A Fixed Effect panel data analysis was undertaken as a mean for the causal effect inference. The apparent policy’s adverse effect implied the further evaluation of the intervention. To understand the underlying mechanism of the result, control variables were introduced, and a hedonic pricing approach was set. The policy was concluded to entail a negative signal for the neighbourhood; this fact was inferred to be the reason behind the observed adverse outcomes. Overall, the program seems to produce unexpected effects on the neighbourhood setting and did not succeed in one of its main objective, the creation of a “community feeling” and the enhancement of the social capital.