ANY OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR(S) AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & SOCIAL SCIENCES, SMU Schooling and Political Participation Revisited

Comments are Welcome. We investigate how the link between individual schooling and political participation is affected by country characteristics. We introduce a focus on a set of variables – namely factor endowments – which influence the relative productivity of human capital in political versus production activities. Using micro data on individual behavior, we find that political participation is more responsive to schooling in land-abundant countries, and less responsive in human capital-abundant countries, even while controlling for country political institutions and cultural attitudes. We develop these ideas in a model where individuals face an allocation decision over the use of their human capital. A relative abundance of land (used primarily in the least skill-intensive sector) or a scarcity of aggregate human capital will increase both the level of political participation and its responsiveness to schooling, b