scholarly journals "Good Politicians'': Experimental Evidence on Motivations for Political Candidacy and Government Performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Gulzar ◽  
Muhammad Yasir Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Public Setting ◽  
Citizen Preferences ◽  
Policy Alignment ◽  
Information Salience

How can we motivate `good' politicians -- those that will carry out policy that is responsive to citizens' preferences -- to enter politics? In a field experiment in Pakistan, we vary how political office is portrayed to ordinary citizens. We find that emphasizing pro-social motives for holding political office instead of personal returns -- such as the ability to help others versus enhancing one's own respect and status -- raises the likelihood that individuals run for office and that voters elect them. It also better aligns subsequent policies with citizens' preferences. The candidacy decisions are explained by social influence, and not information salience -- we find that social versus personal messaging matters only when randomly delivered in a public setting but not in private. Results also show that changes in political supply, not citizen preferences or behavior, explain policy alignment. Taken together, the results demonstrate that non-financial motivations for political entry shape how politicians perform in office.

scholarly journals Three doors anomaly, “should I stay, or should I go”: an artefactual field experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Morone ◽  
Rocco Caferra ◽  
Alessia Casamassima ◽  
Alessandro Cascavilla ◽  
Paola Tiranzoni
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Bayesian Updating ◽  
Anomalous Behavior ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Illusion Of Control ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Status Quo Bias ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis work aims to identify and quantify the biases behind the anomalous behavior of people when they deal with the Three Doors dilemma, which is a really simple but counterintuitive game. Carrying out an artefactual field experiment and proposing eight different treatments to isolate the anomalies, we provide new interesting experimental evidence on the reasons why subjects fail to take the optimal decision. According to the experimental results, we are able to quantify the size and the impact of three main biases that explain the anomalous behavior of participants: Bayesian updating, illusion of control and status quo bias.

scholarly journals Kwacha Gonna Do? Experimental Evidence about Labor Supply in Rural Malawi

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Wage Distribution ◽  
Wage Elasticity ◽  
Supply Elasticity ◽  
Labor Supply Elasticity ◽  
Job Offers ◽  
Daily Wage

I use a field experiment to estimate the wage elasticity of employment in the day labor market in rural Malawi. Once a week for 12 consecutive weeks, I make job offers for a workfare-type program to 529 adults. The daily wage varies from the tenth to the ninetieth percentile of the wage distribution, and individuals are entitled to work a maximum of one day per week. In this context (the low agricultural season), 74 percent of individuals worked at the lowest wage, and consequently the estimated labor supply elasticity is low (0.15), regardless of observable characteristics. (JEL C93, J22, J31, O15, O18, R23)

The Consumer Citizen, Politicians, and Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-74
Author(s):  
Ethan Porter
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Political Candidate ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter studies the relationship between consumer fairness, political preferences, and policy uptake. Americans who support Donald Trump are especially likely to believe the government should be judged by the standards of private companies. New experimental evidence documents that, when politicians of both parties use consumer rhetoric, co-partisans of those leaders subsequently come to view politics in strikingly consumerist terms. In another experiment, results show that voters with low levels of political knowledge look most positively upon a hypothetical political candidate who promises cost-benefit alignability, compared to a candidate who promises more benefits than costs. The chapter then describes a field experiment administered in cooperation with a health insurance cooperative funded under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A message that framed the cooperative as meeting the standards of cost-benefit alignability caused people to enroll in the cooperative.

scholarly journals Does Exposure to Gender Role Models Increase Women’s Political Ambition? A Field Experiment with Politicians

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Florian Foos ◽  
Fabrizio Gilardi
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
Political Office ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractThere is a persistent gender gap in motivations to run for political office. While exposure to role models is widely believed to increase women’s political ambition, there is little field experimental evidence on whether exposure to female politicians in realistic settings can increase political ambition. We conducted a field experiment in which a sample of 612 female students was randomly assigned to receive emails inviting them to an event that included career workshops with female politicians, or no email. The treatment increased interest in the ongoing national election campaign, but, against expectations, did not have any positive effect on political ambition. Our results suggest that female politicians who discuss their experience bluntly, instead of following a motivational script, may fail to motivate other women to pursue a political career. These results highlight the need for more research into the type of events and messages that bring more women into politics.

scholarly journals Labor Drops: Experimental Evidence on the Return to Additional Labor in Microenterprises

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suresh de Mel ◽  
David McKenzie ◽  
Christopher Woodruff
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Wage Subsidies ◽  
Track Dynamics ◽  
Additional Labor

A field experiment in Sri Lanka provided wage subsidies to randomly chosen microenterprises to test whether hiring additional labor benefits such firms and whether a short-term subsidy can have a lasting impact on firm employment. Using 12 rounds of surveys to track dynamics 4 years after treatment, we find that firms increased employment during the subsidy period. Treated firms were more likely to survive, but there was no lasting impact on employment and no effect on profitability or sales either during or after the subsidy period. There is some heterogeneity in effects; the subsidies have a more durable effect on manufacturers. (JEL C93, J22, J24, J31, J38, O14, O15)

Coethnicity and Corruption: Field Experimental Evidence from Public Officials in Malawi

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
Brigitte Seim ◽  
Amanda Lea Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Government Officials

AbstractCorruption is widespread in many developing countries, though public officials’ discretion in the solicitation of bribes may expose some citizens to more corruption than others. We derive expectations about how shared ethnicity between government officials and citizens should influence the likelihood of bribe solicitation. We evaluate these expectations through a field experiment in which Malawian confederates seek electricity connections from real government offices – an interaction that is often accompanied by bribe solicitation. Our field experiment exogenously varied coethnicity between the official and the confederate. We find that coethnicity increases the likelihood of expediting an electricity connection, both with and without a bribe, which we interpret as evidence of parochial corruption.

Pivotality and Turnout: Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Aftermath of a Tied Election

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Enos ◽  
Anthony Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scale Field ◽  
Large Scale Field ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Many citizens abstain from the political process, and the reasons for this abstention are of great interest and importance. Most scholars and pundits assume that greater electoral competition and the increased chance of pivotality will motivate citizens to participate. We test this hypothesis through a large-scale field experiment that exploits the rare opportunity of a tied election for major political office. Informing citizens that an upcoming election will be close has little mobilizing effect. Any effect that we do detect is concentrated among a small set of frequent voters. The evidence suggests that increased pivotality is not a solution to low turnout and the predominant models of turnout focusing on pivotality are of little practical use.

Experimental evidence for the role of earthworms in compacted soil regeneration based on field observations and results from a semi-field experiment

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvan Capowiez ◽  
Stéphane Cadoux ◽  
Pierre Bouchand ◽  
Jean Roger-Estrade ◽  
Guy Richard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Compacted Soil
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