Do voters care about valence? Evidence from South Korean military conscription

Last registered on May 15, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Do voters care about valence? Evidence from South Korean military conscription
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005689
Initial registration date
April 14, 2020

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
May 15, 2020, 4:44 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Korea (Republic of)
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Woojin Kim
Affiliation
UC Berkeley
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2020-04-01
End date
2020-05-01
Keywords
Electoral
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In models of political selection, voters are assumed to care about the ideology and the valence of politicians. This project contributes novel evidence on the role of valence featuring the unique context of the South Korean culture, where (i) all able-bodied men face mandatory military service, and (ii) avoiding conscription is stigmatized. Politicians with sons at/beyond the age of conscription may benefit from a largely random additional opportunity to exhibit valence. This paper studies whether voters are sensitive to this social signal in the upcoming April 15th 2020 general election for the National Assembly and regional by-elections at the district and city levels.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kim, Woojin. 2020. "Do voters care about valence? Evidence from South Korean military conscription." AEA RCT Registry. May 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5689-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-04-15
Intervention End Date
2020-04-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
vote share, indicator for whether elected or not
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Collect data on whether candidates have sons, and if so, the conscription status of the sons. After the election, see whether having a son who has fulfilled compulsory military service provides a gain in vote share or probability of being elected.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Gender of child
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
358 electoral districts/parties
Sample size: planned number of observations
1553 candidates
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
In process (depends on number of candidates with sons)
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