| Deven Carlson
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Out of the Classroom and into the Voting Booth? Analyzing the Effects of Education on Political Participation
This dissertation identifies and analyzes the wide-ranging causal effects of formal education on political participation in the United States. It employs a comprehensive theoretical framework in which the effects of education operate through multiple, interdependent mechanisms, including knowledge, skills, and increased socioeconomic status resulting from increased educational attainment. A variety of educational policies, practices, and contextsa sampling of which include credit requirements, curriculum content, pedagogical techniques, teacher characteristics, and peer groupsare theorized to affect political participation through the mechanisms described above. Using a variety of empirical approaches that allow for causal inference, this theory is tested at all levels of the education system using several large-scale, nationally-representative datasets, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, High School and Beyond, and others. The breadth of the datasets employed in this project allows for investigation of causal heterogeneity along several dimensions, including the level of the education system, the mode of political participation, and the socioeconomic characteristics of individuals. By improving our understanding of the relationship between education and political participation, this dissertation will provide evidence-based insights into the policies and practices that are most effective in preparing students to become active participants in our democratic society.
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