The Persuasive Effects of Direct Mail: A Regression Discontinuity Approach / Alan Gerber, Daniel Kessler, Marc Meredith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gerber, Alan.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kessler, Daniel.

Meredith, Marc.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w14206.

NBER working paper series no. w14206

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Persuasive Effects of Direct Mail

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

During the contest for Kansas attorney general in 2006, an organization sent out 6 pieces of mail criticizing the incumbent's conduct in office. We exploit a discontinuity in the rule used to select which households received the mailings to identify the causal effect of mail on vote choice and voter turnout. We find these mailings had both a statistically and politically significant effect on the challenger's vote share. Our estimates suggest that a ten percentage point increase in the amount of mail sent to a precinct increased the challenger's vote share by approximately three percentage points. Furthermore, our results suggest that the mechanism for this increase was persuasion rather than mobilization.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2008.