Mobilizing Pasadena Democrats: Measuring the Effects of Partisan Campaign Contacts
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vtp_wp66.pdf
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188.55 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4c4a8bc14c07eb3f43c2dfe3b28c5bed
Author(s)
Alvarez, R. Michael
Hopkins, Asa
Sinclair, Betsy
Date Issued
June 28, 2008
Publisher
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
Series/Report no.
VTP Working Paper Series;66
Abstract
This paper examines the effect of an entire campaign using a randomized field experiment here the treatment consists of campaign decisions made by a campaign manager. In contrast to the majority of the field experiments found in the contemporary get-out-the-vote literature, this paper studies the actual behavior of a campaign within a particular election as opposed to studying particular mobilization tactics. Thus, the campaign itself chooses which method to contact each individual within the randomly assigned treatment group. Contacts are made via face-to-face canvassing, phone calls, emails, and doorhangers and consist of experienced volunteers making partisan appeals. We observe a large treatment effect of campaign contact despite a small number of face-to-face contacts, suggesting that the targeting strategy of the campaign manager is particularly effective.
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