Voice and Political Engagement: Evidence From a Natural Field Experiment

Anselm Hager (), Lukas Hensel, Christopher Roth and Andreas Stegmann ()
Additional contact information
Anselm Hager: Humboldt University
Andreas Stegmann: University of Warwick, briq, Cage, CEPR

No 133, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: We conduct a natural field experiment with a major European party to test whether giv-ing party supporters the opportunity to voice their opinions increases their engagement in the party’s electoral campaign. In our experiment, the party asked a random subset of supporters for their opinions on the importance of different topics. Giving supporters more opportunities to voice their opinions increases their engagement in the campaign as measured using behavioral data from the party’s smartphone application. Survey data reveals that our voice treatments also increase other margins of campaign effort as well as 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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D8 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-soc
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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_133_2021.pdf First version, 2021 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Voice and Political Engagement: Evidence From a Natural Field Experiment (2021)
Working Paper: Voice and Political Engagement: Evidence From a Natural Field Experiment (2021)
Working Paper: Voice and Political Engagement: Evidence From a Natural Field Experiment (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:133

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