Can Information Increase Turnout in European Parliament Elections? Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in Denmark

We examine the effect of information on turnout at a European Parliament election in Denmark. We utilize a quasi-experimental design to sidestep the substantial problems related to causal inference associated with identifying the effect of information. Specifically, we look at a group of Danish first-time voters, some of whom were exogenously exposed to information in the run-up to the 2014 European Parliament election, by participating in a one-day workshop about EU (European Union) politics. We find that those who participated were more knowledgeable about and more likely to vote in the upcoming European Parliament election. This suggests that increasing political participation in the EU could, in part, be a matter of exposing the European public to more information about EU politics.