Does college education make people politically liberal?: Evidence from a natural experiment in South Korea.

College education Graduation quota program Ideological orientations Natural experiment Political ideology

Journal

Social science research
ISSN: 1096-0317
Titre abrégé: Soc Sci Res
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0330501

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
07 2019
Historique:
received: 28 08 2018
revised: 18 03 2019
accepted: 19 03 2019
entrez: 28 5 2019
pubmed: 28 5 2019
medline: 28 5 2019
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Our study examines the impact of college education on individuals' ideological orientations (identifying as politically liberal or conservative) using a massive expansion of opportunities to attend college known as the graduation quota program in South Korea. A 1979 military coup in South Korea mandated that all public and private colleges expand their college admission quotas by thirty percent in 1981 and fifty percent in 1982. As an ideal natural experiment for our study, the mandatory increases in college enrollment happened quickly and exogenously in a short timeframe. We use the birth cohorts that were exposed to this abrupt policy change as an instrumental variable (IV) to identify the long-term effects of college education on political preferences. We find that the enrollment expansion caused those individuals who were induced to attend college by the graduation quota program to be more politically liberal.

Identifiants

pubmed: 31130197
pii: S0049-089X(18)30708-7
doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.03.014
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Langues

eng

Pagination

209-220

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Auteurs

Haeil Jung (H)

Department of Public Administration, Korea University, 145 Anam-Ro, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul, 02841, South Korea. Electronic address: hijk@korea.ac.kr.

Jung-Ah Gil (JA)

Department of Political Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu Seoul, 151-746, South Korea. Electronic address: evergreen0822@snu.ac.kr.

Classifications MeSH