id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-012387-1ogcxd7b	Kaufman, Aaron R.	The political consequences of opioid overdoses	2020-08-04		.txt	text/plain	2958	137	49	This paper applies a validated causal research design to study the political consequences of the opioid epidemic on the individuals closest to it-the friends and family of overdose victims. In contrast to other studies examining the effects of tragedy on political participation, we find that friends and family of opioid overdose victims are less likely to turn out to vote than they were before tragedy struck, even compared to victims of premature cancer or a demographically-matched sample of registrants without familial opioid overdoses. We identify in public voter registration records the friends and family of opioid overdose victims, and compare their election turnout rates and party identification in the elections immediately before and after their loved one's death. By comparing political behaviors of these matched groups to the original samples of family members, we control for all observed (but not unobserved) factors that might confound the relationship between cancer or opioid overdose deaths and voter turnout.	./cache/cord-012387-1ogcxd7b.txt	./txt/cord-012387-1ogcxd7b.txt