I recently updated this paper. The revision makes a stronger case for adopting the analytic lens of issue voting for studying coalitions. I think this framework is useful for understanding the effects of campaigns and media, as well as interpreting long-run realignments.

The current administration's attacks on universities risk undermining engines of civic life, just as they harm innovation and prosperity. Places with colleges are more liberal, yes, but colleges also promote the types of social capital that we need more of.

These results contribute to a literature that understands universities as place-based institutions. We know that they profoundly affect the local economy, as economists (incl. my co-authors) have shown. We show how universities also contribute to the civic life of communities.

Would any large public investment generate the same results in the long run? Using a subsample where the runner-up location got a "consolation prize" (eg state capital, penitentiary), we find that universities are indeed distinctive on most of our outcomes.

There are also differences in contemporary public opinion: people living near colleges are more liberal on a range of issues. These attitudinal differences are not solely driven by the presence of students nor by differences in the average educational attainment in the community.

From Reconstruction through the end of the 20th century, there were minimal differences in voting patterns between places w/ a university and "runner-up" locations. Since 2000, though, a gap has emerged, with college counties voting ~10pp more Democratic in 2024.

The establishment of a college also leads to a county casting significantly more votes in presidential elections—an effect that's explained by a population growth channel rather than a turnout rate channel.

We find that places with colleges have significantly higher levels of social capital and trust today, relative to "runner-up" locations that were considered but not chosen.

How do universities shape the surrounding community? Building on meticulous archival work by @MikeJAndrews44, we answer this question by focusing on cases where multiple locations were considered for a major university and the winning location was chosen for idiosyncratic reasons

Decades of research documents differences in turnout, volunteering rates, office-seeking, political preferences, etc., between those with and without college degrees. But universities are place-based institutions, the effects of which may extend beyond students.

Universities often serve as "anchor institutions" that deeply affect the character of their communities. In a new paper, we (@MikeJAndrews44 / Lauren Russell) ask how (and when) the establishment of a college influences local political and civic life. 🧵.

RT @marcomavina: We (@PriyankaSethy_, @MalikMashail and I) have a related finding based on CES data: starting in around 2016, immigration s….

RT @Hugo_Lhu: Using French matched employer-employee data, I find:.📌 High-paying jobs are concentrated in big cities. 📌 Low-paying jobs are….

RT @dhopkins1776: Since 2016, 1 notable pro-GOP shift has come from Latinos. How did Latinos shift towards a party taking strong positions….

paper here:

New paper w/ @dhopkins1776 on immigration attitudes and the GOP swing among Latinos ⬇️.

It's not that we shouldn't repair roads and bridges throughout the state. But those projects are no more important than the public transit system that the largest metro region in the state relies on.

But when it comes to adequately funding SEPTA, which carries 640,000+ riders every day and serves a metro region of 6 million, it's apparently a "bailout.".

These examples took no more than 10 minutes of googling to find. We spend hundreds of millions every year on highways (which of course do not turn a profit).

$3 million to resurface roads in Potter and McKean counties, populations 16,000 and 40,000, respectively

$26 million to replace a bridge on I-81 in Luzerne County, population 327,000. (source: