The effect of education, occupational status, and income on political participation: evidence from identical twins

Abstract

Education, occupation, and income have been long considered as powerful predictors of political participation in Western societies, indicating that voices of people with different socioeconomic status are not expressed to the same extent in politics. However, whether education, occupation, and income have causal effects on political participation is questionable; as well as whether education has an absolute or relative effect on political participation. We contribute to this discussion by estimating the effects of education, occupational status, and income on political participation on a sample of identical twins from Germany. By applying family fixed effects regression models, we take into account unmeasured confounding effects of the social environment and genes. We found that education has a positive effect on political participation that is most likely causal. We did not find effects of occupational status and income on political participation. We conclude that education is not merely a proxy for a person’s relative socio-economic status, but that the absolute level of education has an independent effect. By this, we contribute to the discussion of absolute versus relative effects of education.