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Practice Makes Voters? Effects of Student Mock Elections on Turnout

Author

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  • Öhrvall, Richard

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

  • Oskarsson, Sven

    (Uppsala University)

Abstract

Student mock elections are carried out in schools around the world in an effort to increase political interest and efficacy among students. There is, however, a lack of research on whether mock elections in schools enhance voter turnout in real elections. In this paper, we examine whether the propensity to vote in Swedish elections is higher among young people who have previously experienced a student mock election. The analysis is based on unique administrative population-wide data on turnout in the Swedish 2010 parliamentary election and the 2009 European Parliament election. Our results show that having experienced a mock election as a student does not increase the likelihood of voting in subsequent real elections. This result holds when we study both short- and long-term effects, and when we divide our sample into different parts depending on their socio-economic status and study each part separately.

Suggested Citation

  • Öhrvall, Richard & Oskarsson, Sven, 2018. "Practice Makes Voters? Effects of Student Mock Elections on Turnout," Working Paper Series 1258, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1258
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stefanie Gäbler & Niklas Potrafke & Felix Rösel, 2017. "Compulsory Voting, Voter Turnout and Asymmetrical Habit-formation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6764, CESifo.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political inequality; Student mock elections; Voter turnout; Education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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