TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dee,Thomas S.
TI  - Are There Civic Returns to Education?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9588
PY  - 2003
Y2  - March 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9588
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9588.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thomas Dee
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Polic
and Department of Economics
University of Virginia
235 McCormick Road
P.O. Box 400893
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Tel: 434/243-3731
Fax: 434/243-6858
E-Mail: dee@virginia.edu
AB  - The hypothesized effects of educational attainment on adult civic engagement and attitudes provide some of the most important justifications for government intervention in the market for education. In this study, I present evidence on whether these externalities exist. I assess and implement two strategies for identifying the effects of educational attainment. One is based on the availability of junior and community colleges; the other, on changes in teen exposure to child labor laws. The results suggest that educational attainment has large and statistically significant effects on subsequent voter participation and support for free speech. I also find that additional schooling appears to increase the quality of civic knowledge as measured by the frequency of newspaper readership
ER  -