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    Vote Choice Formation and the Minimal Effects of TV Debates: Evidence from 61 Elections in 9 OECD Countries
    15 Oct 2019Working Paper Summaries

    Vote Choice Formation and the Minimal Effects of TV Debates: Evidence from 61 Elections in 9 OECD Countries

    by Caroline Le Pennec-Caldichoury and Vincent Pons
    This study of 61 elections around the world finds that vote choices aggregate a lot of information obtained during the electoral season, but the contribution of TV debates to this process is negligible.
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    Author Abstract

    We use 200,000 observations from repeated survey data in 61 elections and 9 OECD countries since 1952 to study the formation of vote choices and policy preferences in the electoral season and assess how TV debates contribute to this process. We find that the share of voters who state a pre-election vote intention corresponding to their final vote choice increases by 15 percentage points in the two months preceding the election. Changes in individual vote choices mostly result from changes in beliefs on competing candidates, and they generate aggregate shifts in predicted vote shares. Instead, policy preferences remain remarkably stable over time. We use an event study to estimate the impact of TV debates, campaigns’ most salient events, and find that they do not significantly affect either individual vote choice and preference formation nor aggregate vote shares. This suggests that information continuously received by voters exerts more influence on their behavior.

    Paper Information

    • Full Working Paper Text
    • Working Paper Publication Date: September 2019
    • HBS Working Paper Number: HBS Working Paper #20-031
    • Faculty Unit(s): Business, Government and International Economy
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    Vincent Pons
    Vincent Pons
    Michael B. Kim Associate Professor of Business Administration
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