Publications
Publications
- American Economic Review
All Eyes on Them: A Field Experiment on Citizen Oversight and Electoral Integrity
By: Natalia Garbiras-Díaz and Mateo Montenegro
Abstract
Can information and communication technologies help citizens monitor their elections? We analyze a large-scale field experiment designed to answer this question in Colombia. We leveraged Facebook advertisements sent to over 4 million potential voters to encourage citizen reporting of electoral irregularities. We also cross-randomized whether candidates were informed about the campaign in a subset of municipalities. Total reports, and evidence-backed ones, experienced a large increase. Across a wide array of measures, electoral irregularities decreased. Finally, the reporting campaign reduced the vote share of candidates dependent on irregularities. This light-touch intervention is more cost-effective than monitoring efforts traditionally used by policymakers.
Keywords
Social Influence; Electoral Behavior; Election Outcomes; Economics; Economy; Governance; Government and Politics; Social Media; Social Marketing; Society; Political Elections; Advertising
Citation
Garbiras-Díaz, Natalia, and Mateo Montenegro. "All Eyes on Them: A Field Experiment on Citizen Oversight and Electoral Integrity." American Economic Review 112, no. 8 (August 2022): 2631–2668.