Does Political Knowledge Increase Turnout? Evidence from the 1997 British General Election

Valentino Larcinese

STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series from Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE

Abstract: A number of recent formal models predict a positive effect of politicalknowledge on turnout. Both information acquisition and turnout, however,are likely to be determined by a similar set of variables, rendering hard theidentification of a causal link in empirical investigations. Availableempirical regularities should therefore be interpreted as mere correlations. Iaddress this problem by using an instrumental variables approach, where theinstruments are represented by various proxies of information supply onmass media. Using survey data from the 1997 British General ElectionStudy, I show that political knowledge has a sizeable influence on theprobability of voting and that mass media play an important role ininfluencing 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)
Date: 2005-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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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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