Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Nurfatima Jandarova
Author-Name-First: Nurfatima
Author-Name-Last:Jandarova
Author-Email: nurfatima.jandarova@gmail.com
Author-Workplace-Name: Tampere University, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research (FIT)
Author-Name: Aldo Rustichini
Author-Name-First: Aldo 
Author-Name-Last: Rustichini
Author-Email: aldo.rustichini@gmail.com
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Minnesota
Title: Political participation and party preferences
Abstract: Political behavior of citizens includes political participation and preferences. We show with UK data that political behavior is affected by individual characteristics that are also determining educational attainment, including cognitive abilities and intelligence. Our analysis reconciles the rational choice assumption with the acquisition of costly political information, which would otherwise give only negligible benefits. We disentangle the causal pathways by identifying effects operating directly and those operating indirectly, in particular through education and income. We address the issue of endogeneity of cognitive skills using polygenic scores, and show that an important component of the causal factors is genetic.
Length: 58
Creation-Date: 2024-10
Publication-Status: Published in FIT Working Paper Series, Finnish Center of Excellence in Tax Systems Research
File-URL: https://verotutkimus.fi/verotutkimus/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/FIT-WP-25-Political-Participation.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2024
Number: 25
Classification-JEL:D72, I25, J31
Keywords: political participation, party preferences, human capital, intelligence, individual characteristics, polygenic score
Handle: RePEc:fit:wpaper:25