Bowles, Jeremy and Larreguy, Horacio (2020) Who Debates, Who Wins? At-Scale Experimental Evidence on the Supply of Policy Information in a Liberian Election. IAST working paper, n. 20-112, Toulouse

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Abstract

We examine how candidate selection into the supply of policy information
determines its electoral effects. In a nationwide debate initiative designed to
solicit and rebroadcast policy promises from Liberian legislative candidates,
we randomized the encouragement of debate participation across districts.
The intervention substantially increased the debate participation of leading
candidates but led to uneven electoral returns for these candidates, with
incumbents benefiting at the expense of challengers. These results are driven
by differences in compliance: complying incumbents, but not challengers,
positively selected into debate participation based on the alignment of their
policy priorities with those of their constituents.