Animal Welfare, Ideology, and Political Labels: Evidence from California's Proposition 2 and Massachusetts's Question 3

Abstract

This article explains incentives that individuals face when deciding whether to support legislation on farm-animal treatment. We analyze precinct- and town-level voting patterns in two successful referendum votes (California's Prop 2 and Massachusetts's Question 3) that restricted animal-housing practices. In both cases, support for the referendum was positively correlated with support for the Democratic candidate for president and negatively correlated with employment in agriculture; support for Question 3 increased with income. We use our regression results to predict how voters in other U.S. states would have voted had they faced similar referendums in 2008 and 2016.

Keywords

• animal housing
• eggs
• political economy
• referendum
• voting