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

Valentino Larcinese

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

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.

Keywords: voting; information; mass media; political participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2005-02
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3614/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does political knowledge increase turnout? Evidence from the 1997 British general election (2007)
Working Paper: Does Political Knowledge Increase Turnout? Evidence from the 1997 British General Election (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:3614

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