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2018

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Articles 1 - 30 of 372

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Reading Scholarly Articles, Hilary Kraus Dec 2018

Reading Scholarly Articles, Hilary Kraus

New England Library Instruction Group

This presentation demonstrated a lesson on effectively reading scholarly research articles which was used with students in a first year English course. In the lesson, students are given a relatively short scholarly article, some guidance in effective techniques for breaking down and understanding this kind of article, and a worksheet to guide their process. When they complete the worksheet, they're given an article on a similar topic from a popular source and use a shorter worksheet to compare the two. The lesson ends with a group discussion. Students get practice, in a supportive environment, in understanding how to parse a …

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Monetary Policy In Liberalized Financial Markets: The Mexican Case, Santiago Capraro, Carlo Panico Dec 2018

Monetary Policy In Liberalized Financial Markets: The Mexican Case, Santiago Capraro, Carlo Panico

PERI Working Papers

The paper examines the conduct of monetary policy and the institutional organization of economic policy in Mexico during the years of financial liberalization and the outgrowth of the financial industry. It argues that they have favored the monetary and financial stability at the cost of reducing investment and negatively affecting the strength of the productive structure and the international competitiveness of the Mexican economy. The paper argues that these negative results will eventually make the present conduct of monetary policy unable to pursue the monetary and financial stability of the economy. Unlike other outstanding critical literature, the emphasis of our …

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Magnitude And Mechanisms Of Capital Flight From Angola, CôTe D’Ivoire And South Africa, LéOnce Ndikumana, James Boyce Dec 2018

Magnitude And Mechanisms Of Capital Flight From Angola, CôTe D’Ivoire And South Africa, LéOnce Ndikumana, James Boyce

PERI Working Papers

This paper presents an updated methodology for estimation of capital flight, which is applied to the cases of Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa. The results indicate that the three countries have experienced substantial capital flight over the past four decades, amounting to $60 billion in constant 2015 dollars for Angola (over 1986-2015), $32 billion for Côte d’Ivoire (over 1970-2015), and $198 billion for South Africa (over 1970-2015). An important mechanism of capital flight is misinvoicing of exports and imports, especially in primary commodities. The fact that these outflows have persisted over a long period indicates that they are driven …

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Green Growth And The Right To Energy In India, Rohit Azad, Shouvik Chakraborty Dec 2018

Green Growth And The Right To Energy In India, Rohit Azad, Shouvik Chakraborty

PERI Working Papers

Can growth in India be simultaneously made equitable and environ- mentally sustainable? The recent pattern of high growth in India has been inequitable even as serious questions have been raised about its ecological sustainability. In contrast to the current growth trajectory, this paper argues that an alternative growth trajectory can be de- veloped which answers the question in the affirmative. We propose an Energy Policy with Equity (EPE), which fundamentally changes the energy mix of the Indian economy towards greener forms of en- ergy as well as guarantees universal access to energy thus generated to the entire population, a feat …

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External Balance Sheets Of Emerging Economies: Low-Yielding Assets, High-Yielding Liabilities, Yilmaz AkyüZ Dec 2018

External Balance Sheets Of Emerging Economies: Low-Yielding Assets, High-Yielding Liabilities, Yilmaz AkyüZ

PERI Working Papers

The new millennium has witnessed a rapid expansion of external balance sheets and significant changes in the capital, currency and sectoral compositions of foreign assets and liabilities of emerging economies. While foreign lending and investment in these economies have reached unprecedented levels, even deficit emerging economies have acquired sizeable amounts of foreign assets thanks to large inflows of capital. These changes in the size, composition and leverage of external balance sheets have created new channels of transmission of global financial shocks through their effects on international capital flows. They have also amplified the susceptibility of outstanding stocks of foreign assets …

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A Marxist Theory Of Rent, Deepankar Basu Nov 2018

A Marxist Theory Of Rent, Deepankar Basu

PERI Working Papers

This paper offers a unified analytical treatment of Marx’s theory of rent. I highlight the key role played by the price of the agricultural commodity in determining rent. I offer two closures of the model. The first closure is an elaboration of Marx’s argument in Volume III of Capital. The second closure explicitly allows for the role of demand. I also show that total rent can be decomposed into three components: absolute rent, differential rent I, and differential rent II. A Marxist theory can explain rent in any system of capitalist commodity production which uses privately owned nonreproducible resources.

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Evaluation And Remediation Of Rater Scoring Of Constructed Response Items, Frank Padellaro Jr Nov 2018

Evaluation And Remediation Of Rater Scoring Of Constructed Response Items, Frank Padellaro Jr

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary focus of this study is the impact of variation in rater scoring of constructed response items for credentialing exams used for licensure or accreditation in a professional endeavor. In this type of exam, a candidate may be asked to write in detail about a legal opinion, an auditing report, or a patient diagnosis (just to name a few examples), and a rater (often a professional from the field) is responsible for evaluating the response (Raymond, 2002). Unfortunately, it is impossible for a rater, even one who is well trained, to make such judgments without some amount of error. …

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Three Essays On Health, Risk And Behavior, Irene Mussio Nov 2018

Three Essays On Health, Risk And Behavior, Irene Mussio

Doctoral Dissertations

Health-related decisions could be explained by a variety of factors, ranging from the perception of the risk the activity involves to the knowledge of the long-term effects of the decision. An individual deciding to eat unhealthy or not to exercise could face health problems in the long-run. Individuals with health issues have been found to be more risk averse when it comes to financial decisions, such as portfolio allocation. Financial incentives to engage in healthier behaviors have been successful but short-lived. Prior research leaves many questions such as: What are the factors that explain why an individual decides to engage …

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Rights, Recognition, And Changing Borders: Latin American Activism In Post-Brexit Britain, Stephanie Aragao Medden Nov 2018

Rights, Recognition, And Changing Borders: Latin American Activism In Post-Brexit Britain, Stephanie Aragao Medden

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the advocacy work and political activism of Latin American social movement organizations based in the United Kingdom. I examine how activists working in Britain as it prepares to exit the European Union, make sense of their collective agendas, strategize to achieve their goals, and evaluate the outcomes of their advocacy efforts. In doing so, this project provides insights into the ways that identity movements are negotiated and performed during periods of increased political and public hostility toward their constituents and agendas. I illuminate the relationship between identity movements, immigration discourses, politics, and policy implementation and explore how …

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The Promise(S) Of Resilience: Governance And Resistance In Complex Times, Alix Olson Nov 2018

The Promise(S) Of Resilience: Governance And Resistance In Complex Times, Alix Olson

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation is a contribution to Contemporary Political Theory that considers the ways in which the rise of the concept of “resilience” across contemporary social and political life is fundamentally re-ordering how we understand ourselves, one another, the world, and possibilities for action. My research examines the production and deployment of knowledge about resilience in domains of the popular wellness industry, domestic and global policy-making institutions, philanthropic foundations, insurance companies, scientific and social scientific academic research, socio-ecological justice movements, feminist science fiction and critical theory. In this exercise, I do not denounce resilience (further narrowing possibility) but orient my reader …

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Forms Of Naturalism In Seminal Neoclassical Texts: An Analysis And Comparison Of Léon Walras, John Bates Clark, And William Stanley Jevons, Mark Silverman Nov 2018

Forms Of Naturalism In Seminal Neoclassical Texts: An Analysis And Comparison Of Léon Walras, John Bates Clark, And William Stanley Jevons, Mark Silverman

Doctoral Dissertations

At issue here is the role of “naturalism” in certain seminal neoclassical texts. I outline both a positive and normative dimension to the term “naturalism.” Along its positive dimension, I use the term to mean that the social sciences ought to follow the method of the natural sciences. Along its normative dimension, I use it to mean that the natural order of things can provide for justice. I examine the role these concepts play in the works of Léon Walras, John Bates Clark, and William Stanley Jevons. The question I raise, through this examination, is whether the positive conception of …

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Fearing, Tracking, And Loving Sharks: Ocean Conservation And The Material Rhetoric Of Human-Shark Entanglements, Camille Martinez Nov 2018

Fearing, Tracking, And Loving Sharks: Ocean Conservation And The Material Rhetoric Of Human-Shark Entanglements, Camille Martinez

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the following questions: 1) How do multispecies engagements rhetorically reconfigure the human, the shark and, to some degree, the ocean? and 2) How do such multispecies engagements refigure value relevant to conservation? These questions are explored within a framework of shark conservation as a field of biopolitics exploring the tensions inherent in the project of transforming sharks from killable enemies to valuable, living selves and the constraints and potentials that come into view when new relational possibilities emerge. Conservation practices, especially biodiversity conservation practices, are not merely management choices; they are political choices that shape future …

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Three Essays On Network Dynamics And Liminality, Diego F. Leal Nov 2018

Three Essays On Network Dynamics And Liminality, Diego F. Leal

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the emergence and evolution of social networks by paying particular attention to the spanning of cultural boundaries that segregate actors in the context of specific societies. In particular, I use systems science methods to study the bridging of cultural holes in small and relatively dense artificial societies, as well as in an American high school. I also study the significance of local triadic configurations in giving rise to the highly hierarchical system of aggregate-level migration flows in place in the Americas during the late 20th century. I use the concept of liminality as a way to …

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Social Structure Of Accumulation In Turkey (1963 – 2015), Osman C. Icoz Nov 2018

Social Structure Of Accumulation In Turkey (1963 – 2015), Osman C. Icoz

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes capitalism in Turkey during post-1963 period from social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory perspective. The SSA theory is a theory of interaction of institutions and capital accumulation over long run. This dissertation will be the first book length study on Turkey using SSA Theory approach. It will enrich the SSA literature by adding a case of Turkey, which is a developing country; and hence it will be another example that SSA framework can be extended outside of US. I observe two different SSAs during the period of interest. The first one is Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) SSA …

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The Experience Of Living With Breast Cancer: Puerto Rican Women Tell Their Stories, Madeline Hernández-Ramirez Nov 2018

The Experience Of Living With Breast Cancer: Puerto Rican Women Tell Their Stories, Madeline Hernández-Ramirez

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women of all ethnic groups. Women living with breast cancer encounter not only physical problems but also psychological stress. The breast cancer diagnosis causes crisis for both patients and their families. Research of the lived experience of Puerto Rican women with breast cancer is scarce, and the little research found often classifies Puerto Rican women together with other groups such as Latin or Hispanic. While similarities of breast cancer experiences exist within Latin subgroups, aspects experienced by Puerto Rican women might be unique to them. Unique elements of a …

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Cultural Practices And Social Formations In A Reforming Society: The Transnational Fandom Of European Football In China, Yuan Gong Nov 2018

Cultural Practices And Social Formations In A Reforming Society: The Transnational Fandom Of European Football In China, Yuan Gong

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the Chinese fandom of European male football and its relation to the formation of the Chinese urban middle class. I use online and offline ethnography, critical discourse analysis and textual analysis to examine the socio-cultural roots, technological conditions, and political implications of Chinese fans’ transmedia practices. My findings are twofold. First, I argue for the articulation between the European football fan identity and the subject of urban middle class emerging from the post-Maoist social restructuring. This articulation is reflected from these fans’ active reading of the European football text and their access to European football as conditioned …

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Organizational Factors Influencing Quality And Equity In Pediatric Primary Care: A Mixed Methods Study, Sarah L. Goff Nov 2018

Organizational Factors Influencing Quality And Equity In Pediatric Primary Care: A Mixed Methods Study, Sarah L. Goff

Doctoral Dissertations

The research conducted for this dissertation broadly explored the relationship between characteristics of healthcare organizations and quality and equity in pediatric healthcare. The first of the three studies identified characteristics of pediatric practices with high scores on measures of quality and patient experience using qualitative methods. The second study assessed whether the candidate characteristics identified in the first study were quantitatively associated with performance on quality measures using a statewide survey and publicly available quality data. This study found several potentially modifiable factors associated with performance, including an organizational culture characterized by good communication and interpersonal relationships amongst providers and …

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Re-Thinking ‘Sustainability’: Management And Organization Theorizing For A More-Than-Human-World, Seray Ergene Nov 2018

Re-Thinking ‘Sustainability’: Management And Organization Theorizing For A More-Than-Human-World, Seray Ergene

Doctoral Dissertations

A widespread conversation has emerged around the concept of sustainability in management theory and practice today. The origins of this notion have forwarded a vision of economic development for improving social conditions in different parts of the world, as well as promoting environmental protection to reduce the harmful effects of economic activity on Earth (Brundtland Report, 1987). Emerging from these origins, solving sustainability problems today has come to signify attending to three seemingly distinct pillars: social equity, environmental protection, and economic development. In this dissertation I join these conversations by following recent theoretical discussions suggesting the pillars are actually interrelated …

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Three Investigations Into The Dynamics And Implications Of Identity-Protective Cognition For Public Responses To Environmental Problems, Daniel A. Chapman Nov 2018

Three Investigations Into The Dynamics And Implications Of Identity-Protective Cognition For Public Responses To Environmental Problems, Daniel A. Chapman

Doctoral Dissertations

In the case of responding to climate change and related environmental problems, opinions about the best course of action have become starkly polarized along ideological lines. The identity-protective cognition thesis posits that when individuals experience a sense of challenge to these identities, they are motivated to engage in cognitive shortcuts and other reasoning processes to protect these identities against threat. In this research, I discuss three investigations into identity-protective cognition in the context of responding to environmental problems, applying the broader identity-protective cognition framework to a diverse set of theoretical and practical questions. Chapter 2 highlights research exploring the effect …

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"The Whole Nation Will Move": Grassroots Organizing In Harlem And The Advent Of The Long, Hot Summers, Peter Blackmer Nov 2018

"The Whole Nation Will Move": Grassroots Organizing In Harlem And The Advent Of The Long, Hot Summers, Peter Blackmer

Doctoral Dissertations

“The Whole Nation Will Move” provides a narrative history of grassroots struggles for African American equality and empowerment in Harlem in the decade immediately preceding the era of widespread urban rebellions in the United States. Through a street-level examination of the political education and activism of grassroots organizers, the dissertation analyzes how local people developed a collective radical consciousness and organized to confront and dismantle institutional racism in New York City from 1954-1964. This work also explores how the interests and activities of poor and working-class Black and Puerto Rican residents of Harlem fueled the escalation of protest activity and …

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Three Essays On Governments And Financial Crises In Developing Economies, 1870-1913, Peter H. Bent Nov 2018

Three Essays On Governments And Financial Crises In Developing Economies, 1870-1913, Peter H. Bent

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies the factors that contribute to the onset of financial crises (Chapter 1) and the ways that economies have recovered from crises (Chapters 2 and 3). I am specifically interested in the role that governments played in financial crises and recoveries. I focus on thirty-five peripheral economies from 1870-1913. Economic historians refer to this period as the “first era of globalization” for its high degree of in- ternational capital, trade, and labor movements. This was also an economically volatile time, with relatively frequent financial crises. Other economic variables, such as com- modity prices and tariff rates, saw significant …

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The Linkages Among Market Structure, Market Conduct, And Service Quality: Analysis Of The U.S. Domestic Airline Industry, Amirhossein Alamdar Yazdi Nov 2018

The Linkages Among Market Structure, Market Conduct, And Service Quality: Analysis Of The U.S. Domestic Airline Industry, Amirhossein Alamdar Yazdi

Doctoral Dissertations

As supported by the dynamic structure-conduct-performance (S-C-P) paradigm, market structure affects conduct, and conduct determines firms’ performance (Mckinsey & Company Quarterly, 2008). Several researchers have looked at the S-C-P relationship with focus on price. Boreinstein, 1990; Beutel and McBride, 1992; Kim and Singal, 1993; Morrison, 1996; Veldhuis, 2005; Peters, 2006; Zhang and Round, 2009 looked at the effect of airline mergers on fares; some others have looked at the linkage between the imposition of fees and stock values (Barone, et al., 2012), ticket prices (Henrickson & Scott, 2012; Brueckner, et al., 2015); and some examine the effects of low-cost carriers …

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The Comparative Advantage Of The U.S. Shadow Banking System And The U.S. Dollar, Junji Tokunaga Nov 2018

The Comparative Advantage Of The U.S. Shadow Banking System And The U.S. Dollar, Junji Tokunaga

PERI Working Papers

In the 2000’s prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, European banks borrowed short-term dollar funds on liabilities side, in part, from the U.S., and then lent part of it back to invest in long-term dollar assets in the U.S. on assets side. What facilitated European banks to expand their USD-denominated balance sheets across the Atlantic in the 2000’s, despite the creation of the euro in 1999? Compared to the amount of studies on why European banks expanded their balance sheets, few studies have indeed been done to analyze what determined the currency denomination of European banks’ balance …

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Kuznets, Kaya, And Shapley: The Economic And Energetic Determinants Of Carbon Emissions And The Implications For Development And Environmental Policy, Heidi Garrett-Peltier Nov 2018

Kuznets, Kaya, And Shapley: The Economic And Energetic Determinants Of Carbon Emissions And The Implications For Development And Environmental Policy, Heidi Garrett-Peltier

PERI Working Papers

With global climate change becoming an increasingly pressing concern, the relationship between economic growth and environmental outcomes is as important as ever to understand, particularly in designing policies for low- and middle-income countries that incorporate both environmental and development objectives. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) shows the relationship between income and environmental outcomes. In this paper we examine the existence and shape of the EKC for 132 countries for the period 2000-2010. We add to the EKC literature by using the technique of Shapley Decomposition to assess Kaya identity factors for these 132 countries, grouped into income quartiles. The Kaya …

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China’S Expanding Cultural Influence In The Age Of Globalization: A Case Study Of The Chinese Media In Kenya, Hui-Ping Tao Oct 2018

China’S Expanding Cultural Influence In The Age Of Globalization: A Case Study Of The Chinese Media In Kenya, Hui-Ping Tao

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT
 CHINA’s EXPANDING CULTURAL INFLUENCE IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE CHINESE MEDIA IN KENYA This dissertation seeks to demonstrate growing cultural influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in African countries and illustrates how the PRC attempts to use its economic power and cultural influences to shape African countries’ foreign policies to benefit the PRC by using the Chinese media and cultural expansion in Kenya as a case study. In order to achieve this objective, this study examines the internal and external economic and political forces in both China and Kenya that have helped …

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The Negritude Movements In Colombia, Carlos Valderrama Oct 2018

The Negritude Movements In Colombia, Carlos Valderrama

Doctoral Dissertations

Black politics is a diverse range of social practices, actions, and thoughts through which subordinate groups, political figures, activists and artists negotiate power relations and propose alternatives to their forms of oppression. Negritude was the framework which facilitated the emergence of sites and forms of black politics in Colombia during the 70s. While the founders and leaders of the negritude movements -among them, Étiene Léro, Jules Monnerot, René Menil, Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, Léonard Sainville, Aristide Maungée, the Achille brothers, Léopold Sedar Senghor, Osmane Sosé and Dirago Diop, from French colonies-, were thinking of “It is time for good Cuban …

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The Paradox Of A Town Meeting: The Influence Of Forms Of Local Government On Citizen Representation, Wouter Marc Van Erve Oct 2018

The Paradox Of A Town Meeting: The Influence Of Forms Of Local Government On Citizen Representation, Wouter Marc Van Erve

Doctoral Dissertations

When the federal government fails to provide guidance, or takes positions citizens disagree with, the importance of having strong, responsive local political institutions increases. As a result of either longstanding tradition or political reforms, a number of subnational political institutions now include elements of participatory and direct democracy in an effort to cure perceived democratic deficits. In my research, which uses a comparison of traditional, New England (representative) town meetings to city councils, I address the question of how the choice between using large, participation-oriented representative institutions and smaller legislative assemblies affects citizen participation and representation in local politics. My …

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Three Essays On Child Welfare In Côte D’Ivoire, Didier Wayoro Oct 2018

Three Essays On Child Welfare In Côte D’Ivoire, Didier Wayoro

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to examine the impact of early life events such as civil conflicts and rainfall variability on child welfare in Côte d’Ivoire and investigate possible mitigating factors. It consists of three essays. Focusing on the 2010-2011 post-electoral violence, the empirical results from the first essay show that armed conflicts reduce the birth weight of newborn children who were in-utero during the conflict and increase the probability among exposed pregnant women of having an underweight child at birth. In addition, the study suggests that the impact of conflict on birth weight and low birth weight (less …

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Three Essays On Food Economics Studies, Hongli Wei Oct 2018

Three Essays On Food Economics Studies, Hongli Wei

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation research, we first study how legislations governing nutrients in food production have influenced consumer behaviors and firm choices. Taking margarine and spreads as the product category of choice, Chapter 1 analyzes how consumers and firms responded to the 2006 implementation of the NLEA trans fats labeling guidelines. Our results show that product offerings with “trans fat free” labels increased shortly after 2006, while consumer purchases of products with “trans fat free” labels also surged promptly after the labeling policy was implemented. However, in general, we find the short-term effects of trans fat labeling to be significantly larger …

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Why Education Matters: Political Participation And Interpretive Experiences At High School, Samuel V. Stoddard Oct 2018

Why Education Matters: Political Participation And Interpretive Experiences At High School, Samuel V. Stoddard

Doctoral Dissertations

Political scientists have long recognized educational attainment as a strong predictor of voter turnout, but the mechanisms through which educational experiences lead voters to the polls remain under-explored. This research begins the process of opening the proverbial black box of education to understand the specific types of scholastic experiences that encourage voting. Grounded in previous findings by scholars of policy feedback and political socialization, I use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data analyses to reveal that nonacademic high school experiences can have powerful and lasting interpretive effects. Results show that participants in performance and service-based extracurricular activities are commonly …

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