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Does Schooling Affect Political Attitudes? Quasi-Experimental Evidence

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Abstract

In this paper I study the direct causal effects of schooling on political attitudes of vocational students in Austria. I exploit that classes of apprentices of the same grade level and vocation are as good as randomly assigned to different school terms. This allows to compare apprentices who were at school for ten weeks with apprentices who were at work in their training firms during that time. I find that schooling has a positive direct causal effect on political interest of vocational students. This increase in political interest is, however, not accompanied by a significant increase in voting intention. Furthermore, my results suggest that apprentices who went to school while being exposed to a political affair support different parties than those apprentices who were exposed to the affair at work.

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  • Dominik Stelzeneder, 2023. "Does Schooling Affect Political Attitudes? Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Vienna Economics Papers vie2301, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:vie:viennp:vie2301
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