Evaluations of voting procedures

Last registered on February 14, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Evaluations of voting procedures
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006867
Initial registration date
December 08, 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
December 09, 2020, 10:54 AM EST

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

Last updated
February 14, 2022, 4:23 AM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Jana Freundt
Affiliation
University of Fribourg
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Arno Apffelstaedt
PI Affiliation
University of Cologne
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2020-12-09
End date
2020-12-10
Keywords
Behavior, Electoral
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study how people evaluate voting procedures that are subject to a voting fee, voting bribes, or the exclusion of poor voters relative to a standard majority vote. Using 10 different questions, participants evaluate these voting procedures according to how democratic/non-democratic most people would judge the procedure to be. Participants are incentivized to match the most common answer in their treatment group. We hypothesize that compared to a standard majority vote, the democracy ratings of voting procedures that are subject to a voting fee, voting bribes, or the exclusion of poor voters are significantly lower.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Apffelstaedt, Arno and Jana Freundt. 2022. "Evaluations of voting procedures." AEA RCT Registry. February 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6867-3.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-12-09
Intervention End Date
2020-12-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We study how people evaluate different majority voting procedures on 10 dimensions: (1) democratic, (2) representative, (3) inclusive, (4) appropriate, (5) fair, (6) legitimate, (7) acceptable, (8) corrupt, (9) flawed, (10) manipulated. For the exact elicitation of these criteria, see the instructions in the Appendix.

Outcomes are the evaluations of the voting mechanism in each treatment with respect to the above criteria. All evaluations are asked using 6 point Lickert scales from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”. We will convert the answers on the Lickert scale to a numeric format according to the following convention:

Strongly disagree = -1
Disagree = -2/3
Somewhat disagree = -1/3
Somewhat agree = +1/3
Agree = +2/3
Strongly agree = +1
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We will use the following composite indices (each consists of an average across all items):

Rating_Index (all items 1-10): The ratings of the negative items (items 8, 9, 10) will be reversed in this index.
Democracy_Index (items 1-3)
Positive_Index (items 1-7)
Negative_Index (items 8, 9, 10)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
For the exact procedure, see attached document. The attached document includes a detailed description of the procedure, the treatments as well as the full instructions.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
random assignment to treatments
Randomization Unit
individual randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
100 participants per treatment group, 500 in total
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 participants per treatment group, 500 in total
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Explanations and original instructions
Document Type
other
Document Description
Please find a more detailed explanation of the study together with the full instructions of the Baseline treatment in the attached document.
File
Explanations and original instructions

MD5: 1dbb89e8458cb449713c7d9852415f6c

SHA1: 231b0f0dc344da4c4660d966422a3b76d4fae754

Uploaded At: December 08, 2020

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

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