All Eyes on Them: A Field Experiment on Citizen Oversight and Electoral Integrity

Natalia Garbiras-Díaz and Juan Mateo Montenegro Zarama

American Economic Review, 2022, vol. 112, issue 8, 2631-68

Abstract: Can information and communication technologies help citizens monitor their elections? We analyze a large-scale field experiment designed to answer this question in Colombia. We leveraged Facebook advertisements sent to over 4 million potential voters to encourage citizen reporting of electoral irregularities. We also cross-randomized whether candidates were informed about the campaign in a subset of municipalities. Total reports, and evidence-backed ones, experienced a large increase. Across a wide array of measures, electoral irregularities decreased. Finally, the reporting campaign reduced the vote share of candidates dependent on irregularities. This light-touch intervention is more cost-effective than monitoring efforts traditionally used by policymakers.

JEL-codes: C93 D12 D72 D83 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20210778

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