Colussi, T., Isphording, I.E. and Pestel, N. <br/><br/>
Minority salience and political extremism 

 - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics   
 - 13(3), Jul, 2021: p.237-271 
<br/><br/> Authors investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group's voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents' perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims. – Reproduced  
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, Voting behavior