Is Information Power? Using Mobile Phones and Free Newspapers during an Election in Mozambique

Pedro Vicente

No 328, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: Incumbent politicians in African countries have been cementing their positions in recent elections. That was the case of the Mozambican election of 2009, where the ruling party secured 75 percent of the vote, amid low participation and clear challenges of political accountability. We conducted a field experiment implemented nationwide based on three interventions providing information to voters and calling for their participation in the elections: an SMS civic education campaign centered on the elections, an SMS hotline to which citizens were able to report electoral misconduct, and the distribution of a free newspaper door-to-door focusing on voter education. We measure the effects of these treatments by looking at official electoral results, a behavioral measure of political participation, reports by electoral observers, and surveys. We find a clear positive effect of all treatments on voter turnout, close to five percentage points. Some treatments benefitted incumbents. We also have evidence that the distribution of the free newspaper led to more accountability-based participation and to a decrease in the incidence of electoral problems. All treatments increased information but caused diverse effects on perceptions about politics.

Keywords: voter education; political economy; cell phones; newspapers; randomized experiment; field experiment; Mozambique; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 O55 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Is Information Power? Using Mobile Phones and Free Newspapers during an Election in Mozambique (2017)
Working Paper: Is information power? Using mobile phones and free newspapers during an election in Mozambique (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:328

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