How Do Voters Respond to Information? Evidence from a Randomized Campaign
通过与意大利现任市长连任竞选合作的大规模随机实验，研究了关于候选人能力或意识形态的信息如何影响选民投票和信念更新，并模拟了反事实竞选策略。
In a large-scale controlled trial in collaboration with the reelection campaign of an Italian incumbent mayor, we administered (randomized) messages about the candidate's valence or ideology. Informational treatments affected both actual votes in the precincts and individual vote declarations. Campaigning on valence brought more votes to the incumbent, but both messages affected voters' beliefs. Cross-learning occurred, as voters who received information about the incumbent also updated their beliefs on the opponent. With a novel protocol of beliefs elicitation and structural estimation, we assess the weights voters place upon politicians' valence and ideology, and simulate counterfactual campaigns.