Working Paper: NBER ID: w29308
Authors: Sarah Cohodes; James J. Feigenbaum
Abstract: In the United States, people with more education vote more. But, we know little about why education increases political participation or whether higher-quality education increases civic participation. We study applicants to Boston charter schools, using school lotteries to estimate charter attendance impacts for academic and voting outcomes. First, we confirm large academic gains for students in the sample of charter schools and cohorts investigated here. Second, we find that charter attendance boosts voter participation. Voting in the first presidential election after a student turns 18 increased substantially, by six percentage points from a base of 36 percent. The voting effect is driven entirely by girls and there is no increase in voter registration. Rich data and the differential effects by gender enable us to explore multiple potential channels for the voting impact. We find evidence that charter schools increase voting by increasing students' noncognitive skills.
Keywords: education; voting; charter schools; civic participation
JEL Codes: D72; H75; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Charter school attendance (I21) | Voter participation (K16) |
| Charter school attendance (I21) | Noncognitive skills (G53) |
| Noncognitive skills (G53) | Voter participation (K16) |
| Charter school attendance (I21) | Academic performance (D29) |
| Academic performance (D29) | Voter participation (K16) |
| Charter school attendance (I21) | High school exit exam pass rates (I21) |
| Charter school attendance (I21) | College attendance (I23) |