Do Get-Out-the-Vote Calls Reduce Turnout? The Importance of Statistical Methods for Field Experiments
Do Get-Out-the-Vote Calls Reduce Turnout? The Importance of Statistical Methods for Field Experiments
复制标题
呼吁投票会降低投票率吗?
DOI:
10.1017/s0003055405051658
复制
发表时间:
2005
影响因子:
6.8
通讯作者:
K. Imai
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
K. Imai
In their landmark study of a field experiment, Gerber and Green (2000) found that get-out-the-vote calls reduce turnout by five percentage points. In this article, I introduce statistical methods that can uncover discrepancies between experimental design and actual implementation. The application of this methodology shows that Gerber and Green's negative finding is caused by inadvertent deviations from their stated experimental protocol. The initial discovery led to revisions of the original data by the authors and retraction of the numerical results in their article. Analysis of their revised data, however, reveals new systematic patterns of implementation errors. Indeed, treatment assignments of the revised data appear to be even less randomized than before their corrections. To adjust for these problems, I employ a more appropriate statistical method and demonstrate that telephone canvassing increases turnout by five percentage points. This article demonstrates how statistical methods can find and correct complications of field experiments.