Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16839
Authors: Anselm Hager; Lukas Hensel; Christopher Roth; Andreas Stegmann
Abstract: We conduct a natural field experiment with a major European party to test whether givingparty supporters the opportunity to voice their opinions increases their engagementin the party’s electoral campaign. In our experiment, the party asked a random subsetof supporters for their opinions on the importance of different topics. Giving supportersmore opportunities to voice their opinions increases their engagement in the campaign asmeasured using behavioral data from the party’s smartphone application. Survey datareveals that our voice treatments also increase other margins of campaign effort as wellas perceived voice. Our evidence highlights that parties can increase their supporters’investment in the democratic process by implementing policies that increase their voice.
Keywords: Political Engagement; Inclusion; Voice; Agency; Natural Field Experiment; Canvassing
JEL Codes: D8; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Providing supporters the opportunity to voice their opinions (D72) | Increases canvassing activity (K16) |
| Voice treatments (Y20) | Increase in total number of campaign activities (H56) |
| Perceived voice (D79) | Increase in intended campaign activities (E63) |
| Perceived voice (D79) | Increase in actual canvassing participation (K16) |
| Instrumental voice treatment (C26) | Stronger effects on engagement (C92) |