We also explore whether the effect of university study on attitudes toward European integration is more substantial for those who graduate at younger ages, as we would predict under the ‘impressionable years’ hypothesis.
We use data from the British Household Panel japan rcs data Study and UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society), collected in the period 1992-2022, and two different methods, to provide estimates of the average causal effect of university study on Euroscepticism in the modern British context, and how this varies by age at graduation.
Our first method considers how much the same individuals’ attitudes toward Europe change over the panel period and considers whether the average level of attitudinal change observed differs for those who have obtained a degree in that time, as compared to for those who have never studied at university. The second method explores how attitudes toward European integration vary between siblings who have and have not studied at university in the period and is based on the assumption that co-resident siblings will have had almost identical pre-adult socialisation experiences.