Do Tuition Subsidies Raise Political Participation?

Firoozi, Daniel; Geyn, Igor

doi:10.1257/pol.20240422

Abstract

Civic externalities motivate education expenditures, but estimates of the civic returns to large-scale education subsidies are scarce. We use 16 million financial aid applications and a RD design to estimate how a tuition-free college program impacts political participation. We find that each of the 2.6 million awards increased a student's voter turnout rate by 4 to 12 percentage points in 2020, raising total turnout and Biden's margin of victory in the awarding state. We find evidence consistent with peer socialization, among other mechanisms, and show that the civic externalities of education spending can be large enough to sway elections.

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Economic Policy