Here's our abstract. Any comments are greatly appreciated.
Best,
Dan and Colin
Crowded Cities, Crowded Streets: How Population Density Affects Local
Participation
Dan Hopkins and Colin Moore
Drawing on a survey of 29,000 Americans from communities throughout the United
States, this paper expands on J. Eric Oliver's (2000) argument that living in a
larger city decreases the probability that one will engage in a variety of
forms of local political participation. By shifting the causal emphasis from a
city¡¯s size to its population density, we illustrate that the effects of an
individual¡¯s environment depend crucially on the kind of participation in
question. As population density increases, an individual is 2.7% less likely
to attend a public meeting, but 2.0% more likely to participate in a
demonstration, boycott, or protest.