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Policies Can Still Create New Politics: Contemporary Causal Evidence from New York Preschool Parents

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  • Jacobson, Sophie

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

Can citizens' firsthand experiences with government policies shape their political opinions? Research on mass "policy feedback" effects increasingly raises doubts about the capacity of even salient policies to overcome partisan and ideological divisions to shift citizen attitudes. I advance this debate with causal estimates of recent, substantial, and broad-based belief change through personal experience with a child in public preschool. Using a difference-in-differences design with an original opinion panel of New York parents universally eligible for too few free full-day seats, I show that experience with public pre-K creates new political beliefs within months. Parents’ baseline preferences for government-provided childcare over private options doubles after a single semester. This profound shift does not differ between Republicans or conservatives with UPK seats and their more liberal counterparts. Social scientists have shown that universal preschool could transform children's life chances, GDP, and gender parity in economic life; this study suggests profound political effects, too.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacobson, Sophie, 2024. "Policies Can Still Create New Politics: Contemporary Causal Evidence from New York Preschool Parents," OSF Preprints 9nfg7, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:9nfg7
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/9nfg7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zhang, Baobao & Mildenberger, Matto & Howe, Peter D. & Marlon, Jennifer & Rosenthal, Seth A. & Leiserowitz, Anthony, 2020. "Quota sampling using Facebook advertisements," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 558-564, July.
    2. Sances, Michael W., 2021. "Missing the Target? Using Surveys to Validate Social Media Ad Targeting," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 215-222, January.
    3. repec:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:12441-12446 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Coppock, Alexander, 2019. "Generalizing from Survey Experiments Conducted on Mechanical Turk: A Replication Approach," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 613-628, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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