Are the policy views of young voters represented in politics

Last registered on March 13, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Are the policy views of young voters represented in politics
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011069
Initial registration date
March 09, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
March 13, 2023, 3:19 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Finland
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Janne Tukiainen
Affiliation
University of Turku
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Risto Rönkkö
PI Affiliation
LABORE
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PI Name
Mika Maliranta
PI Affiliation
LABORE
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PI Name
Antti Sieppi
PI Affiliation
FCCA
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PI Name
Mikko Niemelä
PI Affiliation
University of Turku
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Jenni Simonen
PI Affiliation
E2
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PI Name
Päivi Honkatukia
PI Affiliation
University of Tampere
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PI Name
Aki Koivula
PI Affiliation
University of Turku
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PI Name
Petri Rouvinen
PI Affiliation
ETLA
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PI Name
Juho Saari
PI Affiliation
University of Tampere
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PI Name
Ari Hyytinen
PI Affiliation
Hanken
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-02-01
End date
2023-12-31
Keywords
Electoral, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Voting Behaviour, Policy preferences
JEL code(s)
C83, D9, D72
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Using a randomized conjoint survey set-up, we study political views of young people ahead of the 2023 parliament elections in Finland. We are particularly interested in young people's views on the political challenges of the future. As a comparison groups we have older adult populations and the candidates of the parliament election. We link the respondent's socio- economic characteristics as well as their societal views and media use in their political views.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Honkatukia, Päivi et al. 2023. "Are the policy views of young voters represented in politics." AEA RCT Registry. March 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11069-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2023-03-01
Intervention End Date
2023-03-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome is which of the political agendas the respondents prefer in the conjoint. These stated choices are informative about their political preferences. We compare the preferences of the three groups to each other: young citizens, older citizens and parliamentary candidates (also split to young and older candidates if the sample size allows).

In addition we study heterogenous effects of the respondents' socioeconomic characteristics, their political views and media use on their preferences.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study involves a conjoint survey experiment which is carried out among 18-29 old people in Finland. Also we have a smaller sample of 30-74 years of people and candidates of the 2023 parliament election as comparison groups. The citizen part of the survey is organized by a commercial firm Taloustutkimus who collect the sample from their normal respondent pool. Also their platform is used for the political candidates. We reach out to the candidates via their political parties. The party office will forward our e-mail to the candidates and send invitations to participate in our survey including the conjoint scenarios. We get many background characteristics for the citizens from the existing information that Taloustutkimus has on their subject pool. For the election candidates it is not possible to use individualized web-links. Therefore, we collect some background information on them in the survey. Moreover, we ask them to voluntary give identifying information and the we can use to link them to election registers. All survey respondents also answer background questions with respect to their socio-demographics, views on politics and Finnish society, and media use. Order of the conjoint and background survey is randomized to be able to assess if there are framing effects.

In the conjoint part of the survey, all the respondents are first presented with an identical introductory text. After that they are presented two hypothetical political parties with political agendas, and asked which one of them they would vote in the 2023 parliament election. The party agendas differ with respect to several attributes which are randomized by the researchers. Also the order of profiles is randomized across respondents but is fixed at the respondent level.

More specifically, we ask the following question and employ the following attributes in each of the 8 hypothetical voting decision scenarios:



"Next we show you 8 pair of cards, one at time. In each pair there are political agendas of two hypothetical political parties (party A and B). Choose the party you would prefer to vote in the 2023 parliament election?”

Party

- Would promote the introduction of flight tax
- Would not promote the introduction of flight tax

- Would raise the retirement age by 2 years
- Would keet retirement age unchanged
- Would lower the retirement age by 2 years

- Would reduce labor taxation
- Would keep labor taxation unchanged
- Would tighten labor taxation

- Would lower the basic level of unemployment benefit
- Would keep the basic level of unemployment benefit unchanged
- Would improve the basic level of unemployment benefit

- Would promote the introduction of a 6-hour working day
- Would keep the hours worked unchanged

- Would reduce the average class size of elementary school by three students
- Would keep the average class size of elementary school unchanged
- Would increase the average class size of elementary school by three students

- Would ban fur farming illegal
- Would keep the laws related to fur farming unchanged

- Would increase work-related immigration
- Would reduce work-related immigration
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Uniform randomization of choice scenario from the set of possible choice scenarios based on a professional survey software.
Randomization Unit
Randomization is at the individual choice scenario level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We survey 1000 18-29 years old individuals and 200 30-74 old individuals. The number of respondents amont the parliament election candidates is not known ex ante.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We survey 1000 18-29 years old individuals and 200 30-74 old individuals. The number of respondents amont the parliament election candidates is not known ex ante.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We survey 1000 18-29 years old individuals and 200 30-74 old individuals. The number of respondents amont the parliament election candidates is not known ex ante.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials