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The Impact Of Education On Political Ideology: Evidence From European Compulsory Education Reforms, Andrew G. Meyer
The Impact Of Education On Political Ideology: Evidence From European Compulsory Education Reforms, Andrew G. Meyer
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
Previous research documents a correlation between education and political ideology, usually indicating a positive relationship between education and left-wing political views. In this paper, I examine to what extent this association is causal. I merge political ideology data from 25 waves of Eurobarometer surveys with information on 18 educational reforms in 11 European countries. I then instrument for educational attainment with a regression discontinuity design that estimates the increase in education due to compulsory educational reforms. Notably, it appears that omitted variables bias is important here. I find a significant causal effect of education moving individuals to the right when …