Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/210899 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1258
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Student mock elections are carried out in schools around the world in an effort to increase political interest and efficacy among students. There is, however, a lack of research on whether mock elections in schools enhance voter turnout in real elections. In this paper, we examine whether the propensity to vote in Swedish elections is higher among young people who have previously experienced a student mock election. The analysis is based on unique administrative population-wide data on turnout in the Swedish 2010 parliamentary election and the 2009 European Parliament election. Our results show that having experienced a mock election as a student does not increase the likelihood of voting in subsequent real elections. This result holds when we study both shortand long-term effects, and when we divide our sample into different parts depending on their socio-economic status and study each part separately.
Subjects: 
Political inequality
Student mock elections
Voter turnout
Education
JEL: 
D10
D72
I24
I28
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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