I also find that the reforms increased the participation gap between citizens with higher and lower levels of education. The lower-educated in Bremen and Hamburg were less likely to participate after 2011 compared to before, while lower educated elsewhere were more likely to turn out.

Moreover, I used data from 79 election surveys to compare 97,849 observations. I find a significant and negative disparity between the change in voting intention among respondents from Bremen and Hamburg before and after 2011 and the change observed among respondents from other member-states.

I find no significant before-to-after-reform differences in voter turnout for the unreformed Bundestag and European Parliament elections, ruling out that something other than the reforms is causing Bremen and Hamburg voters to be less inclined to vote.