Document de travail

Who Debates, Who Wins? At-Scale Experimental Evidence on the Supply of Policy Information in a Liberian Election

Jeremy Bowles et Horacio Larreguy

Résumé

We examine how candidate selection into the supply of policy information determines its electoral effects. In a nationwide debate initiative designed to solicit and rebroadcast policy promises from Liberian legislative candidates, we randomized the encouragement of debate participation across districts. The intervention substantially increased the debate participation of leading candidates but led to uneven electoral returns for these candidates, with incumbents benefiting at the expense of challengers. These results are driven by differences in compliance: complying incumbents, but not challengers, positively selected into debate participation based on the alignment of their policy priorities with those of their constituents.

Mots-clés

accountability, information, selection;

Référence

Jeremy Bowles et Horacio Larreguy, « Who Debates, Who Wins? At-Scale Experimental Evidence on the Supply of Policy Information in a Liberian Election », IAST working paper, n° 20-112, octobre 2020.

Voir aussi

Publié dans

IAST working paper, n° 20-112, octobre 2020