Does political knowledge increase turnout? Evidence from the 1997 British general election

Larcinese, Valentino ORCID: 0000-0002-7780-3093 (2005) Does political knowledge increase turnout? Evidence from the 1997 British general election. . Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, London, UK.

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Abstract

A number of recent formal models predict a positive effect of political knowledge on turnout. Both information acquisition and turnout, however, are likely to be determined by a similar set of variables, rendering hard the identification of a causal link in empirical investigations. Available empirical regularities should therefore be interpreted as mere correlations. I address this problem by using an instrumental variables approach, where the instruments are represented by various proxies of information supply on mass media. Using survey data from the 1997 British General Election Study, I show that political knowledge has a sizeable influence on the probability of voting and that mass media play an important role in influencing political participation.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2005 the author
Divisions:	Government STICERD
Subjects:	J Political Science > JC Political theory
JEL classification:	D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D72 - Economic Models of Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief
Date Deposited:	28 Feb 2008
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 04:08
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/3614

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