DP16839 Voice and Political Engagement: Evidence From a Natural Field Experiment
We conduct a natural field experiment with a major European party to test whether giving
party supporters the opportunity to voice their opinions increases their engagement
in the party’s electoral campaign. In our experiment, the party asked a random subset
of supporters for their opinions on the importance of different topics. Giving supporters
more opportunities to voice their opinions increases their engagement in the campaign as
measured using behavioral data from the party’s smartphone application. Survey data
reveals that our voice treatments also increase other margins of campaign effort as well
as perceived voice. Our evidence highlights that parties can increase their supporters’
investment in the democratic process by implementing policies that increase their voice.
