Year: 2013
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Crude vote buying is a frequent practice during election time in many parts of the world, namely in Africa. But no research has been done to quantify its effects on voters ’ electoral behavior. To address this challenge, we designed and conducted a randomized experiment during the presidential elections of July 2006 in Sao Tome and Principe. This is a newly found oil-rich West African country that has been facing an increase in door-to-door vote buying. Our research design included a randomized campaign against vote buying sponsored by the Electoral Commission of the country, and pre-electoral campaign/postelection panel surveys in treatment (exposed to the campaign) and control locations, including 1034 subjects across 50 different areas. We observe a significant effect of the campaign on perceptions of vote buying, which constitutes the exogenous variation we use to identify effects on voting behavior. We characterize determinants of vote buying (more frequent in swing and rural locations), and find that vote buying energizes the electorate by increasing turnout. Crucially, we capture real effects on candidates’ relative
Source: The Economic Journal
DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12086
Author: Pedro C. Vicente
Institution: Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Open Society Institute
OpenAlex ID: W2170830058