ERIC Number: ED672403
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Feb
Pages: 70
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Which Colleges Increase Voting Rates? EdWorkingPaper No. 24-912
D'Wayne Bell; John B. Holbein; Samuel Imlay; Jonathan Smith
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
We study how colleges shape their students' voting habits by linking millions of SAT takers to their college-enrollment and voting histories. To begin, we show that the fraction of students from a particular college who vote varies systematically by the college's attributes (e.g. increasing with selectivity) but also that seemingly similar colleges can have markedly different voting rates. Next, after controlling for students' college application portfolios and pre-college voting behavior, we find that attending a college with a 10 percentage-point higher voting rate increases entrants' probability of voting by 4 percentage points (10 percent). This effect arises during college, persists after college, and is almost entirely driven by higher voting-rate colleges making new voters. College peers' initial voting propensity plays no discernible role.
Descriptors: Voting, Citizen Participation, Institutional Characteristics, College Applicants, Selective Admission, College Admission, Behavior Patterns, Probability, Correlation, Higher Education, College Entrance Examinations, Advanced Placement, College Attendance, Student Records, Elections, Robustness (Statistics)
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: annenberg@brown.edu; Web site: https://annenberg.brown.edu/
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: SAT (College Admission Test)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A