Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

3-2011

Abstract

We provide evidence that economic circumstances are a key intermediating variable for understanding the relationship between schooling and political protest. Using the World Values Survey, we find that individuals with higher levels of schooling, but whose income outcomes fall short of that predicted by their biographical characteristics, in turn display a greater propensity to engage in protest activities. We discuss a number of interpretations that are consistent with this finding, including the idea that economic conditions can affect how individuals trade off the use of their human capital between production and political activities. Our results could also reflect a link between education, ‘‘grievance’’, and political protest, although we argue that this is unlikely to be the sole explanation. Separately, we show that the interaction between schooling and economic conditions matters too at the country level: Rising education levels coupled with macroeconomic weakness are associated with increased incumbent turnover, as well as subsequent pressures toward democratization.

Keywords

Education, Human capital, Political protest, Economic under-performance, Incumbent turnover, Democratization

Discipline

Education | Inequality and Stratification | Political Economy | Politics and Social Change

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

First Page

1

Last Page

38

Publisher

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series, No. 03-2011

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Comments

Published in Journal of Comparative Economics, 2014, 42 (3), 495-517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2014.04.010

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