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Does personal door-to-door campaigning influence voters? Evidence from a field experiment

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  • Baum, Charles L.
  • Owens, Mark F.

Abstract

We investigate a quasi-randomized field experiment to determine the effectiveness of door-to-door campaigning by a candidate on outcomes in a general election. The candidate campaigned door-to-door in quasi-randomly-selected voting precincts, which represent the treatment group. Precincts in which the candidate did not campaign door-to-door are the control group. We utilize detailed precinct-level demographic characteristics, vote totals for the candidate in the prior election, and vote totals for a candidate for another office that appeared on the same ballots in both elections. This information allows us to control for various factors using difference-in-difference and first difference regression models to account for differences between treatment and control groups. We find that door-to-door campaigning by the candidate increases the candidate's vote by 3 percentage points and the vote margin by 6 percentage points in a two-candidate race.

Suggested Citation

  • Baum, Charles L. & Owens, Mark F., 2023. "Does personal door-to-door campaigning influence voters? Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:105:y:2023:i:c:s2214804323000691
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2023.102043
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    References listed on IDEAS

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