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On the effect of business and economic university education on political ideology: An empirical note

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  • Delis, Manthos D.
  • Hasan, Iftekhar
  • Iosifidi, Maria

Abstract

We empirically test the hypothesis that a major in economics, management, business administration or accounting (for simplicity referred to as business/economics) leads to more-conservative (right-wing) political views. We use a panel dataset of individuals (repeated observations for the same individuals over time) living in the Netherlands, drawing data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences from 2008 through 2013. Our results show that when using a simple fixed effects model, which fully controls for individuals' time-invariant traits, any statistically and quantitatively significant effect of a major in business/economics on the political ideology of these individuals disappears. We posit that, at least in our sample, there is no evidence for a causal effect of a major in business/economics on individuals' political ideology.

Suggested Citation

  • Delis, Manthos D. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Iosifidi, Maria, 2017. "On the effect of business and economic university education on political ideology: An empirical note," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 22/2017, Bank of Finland.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:rdp2017_022
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • M2 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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