Foot-in-the-door strategy during a political canvassing in La Plata. Experimental Evidence from Argentina

Last registered on February 24, 2019

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Foot-in-the-door strategy during a political canvassing in La Plata. Experimental Evidence from Argentina

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003920

Initial registration date

February 18, 2019

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

February 24, 2019, 7:48 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

Argentina

Region

La Plata, Buenos Aires

Primary Investigator

Name

Maria Gabriela Ertola Navajas

Affiliation

Universidad de San Andres

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Martin A. Rossi

PI Affiliation

Universidad de San Andres

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Roberto Ignacio Ertola Navajas

PI Affiliation

Universidad Torcuato Di Tella

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2019-02-18

End date

2019-12-31

Keywords

Electoral

Additional Keywords

Door-to-door canvassing, persuasion effects

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

It is our mainly aim to estimate direct causal effects of door-to-door combined with a foot-in-the-door technique during an extensive canvasing compared with previous studies. Our hypothesis is that a level of interaction between a neighbor and a candidate would promote gratitude or indebtedness related to the aspects of the relationship between the agents. In order to do so, we run an experiment in some localities of La Plata.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Ertola Navajas, Roberto Ignacio, Maria Gabriela Ertola Navajas and Martin A. Rossi. 2019. "Foot-in-the-door strategy during a political canvassing in La Plata. Experimental Evidence from Argentina." AEA RCT Registry. February 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3920-1.0

Former Citation

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention has two different parts: specific political publicity that aims the candidate to be known by everyone in the neighborhood and a door-to-door canvassing which main objective is to establish a bond with the voter and maintain the link until the day of general elections at least.

Intervention Start Date

2019-02-18

Intervention End Date

2019-08-11

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our main outcome is the percentage of treated voters in each polling station

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

(1) the number of complaints and requests made by the candidate and voters;
(2) the number of direct contacts made by voters;
(3) a dummy variable that reflects if voter participate in any City Council Session, and
(4) a dummy variable to capture social involvement at neighborhood level like neighborhoods’ meetings.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

first place we settle on the territory where the intervention can be done. Regardless of the 255 authorized polling stations the 8th electoral section has, we were allowed to run the experiment in only 50.
We consider target households to every house which location is at most two blocks from each eligible polling place.
The units of analysis are the polling stations at the polling places.

Experimental Design Details

first place we settle on the territory where the intervention can be done. Before the randomization took place, the campaign team determined the polling places where they can visit without interfere in the general political canvassing. Regardless of the 255 authorized polling stations the 8th electoral section has, we were allowed to run the experiment in only 50 (approximate 20%).
We consider target households to every house which location is at most two blocks from each eligible polling place.
The units of analysis are the polling stations at the polling places.

Randomization Method

Random numbers with Stata

Randomization Unit

We first divided the eligible territory in 4 strata: the Metropolitan area, the North (Tolosa, Ringuelet, Gonnet and City Bell), the West (Los Hornos and Lisandro Olmos) and the South (Villa Elvira, San Lorenzo and Arana).
Randomization was done within each strata. We randomly select polling places equally to the treatment and control groups, using random numbers in Stata.

As we have already defined the target number of households in each territory, the population is every voter who lives in the eligible territory and vote in that polling place.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes