The Effects of Partisan Elections on Political and Policy Outcomes: Evidence from North Carolina School Boards

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on the political and policy consequences of partisan vs. nonpartisan local elections in the context of school board elections in North Carolina. Specifically, we study the impacts of shifting to partisan elections in a difference-in-differences framework. First, we examine political outcomes. Our main results show that the shift to partisan elections increases the likelihood that a Republican candidate wins election. The effect is robust to a variety of difference-in-difference modeling approaches, as well as the inclusion of candidate fixed effects. The positive effect on Republicans also leads to a lower likelihood of female candidates being elected. Next, we consider policy outcomes, extending beyond the direct impacts of partisan elections. Our results show that schools in districts that switch to partisan elections experience an increase in teacher turnover and also an increase in the rate of students experiencing suspensions or expulsions.

Keywords: school boards, partisan elections