Quarterly Journal of Political Science > Vol 19 > Issue 3

Do Billboard Advertisements Increase Voter Turnout? A Large-Scale Field Experiment

Donald P. Green, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, USA, dpg2110@columbia.edu , Lionel Ong, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, USA, Kylan Rutherford, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, USA, Aaron Schein, Department of Statistics, The University of Chicago, USA, schein@uchicago.edu
 
Suggested Citation
Donald P. Green, Lionel Ong, Kylan Rutherford and Aaron Schein (2024), "Do Billboard Advertisements Increase Voter Turnout? A Large-Scale Field Experiment", Quarterly Journal of Political Science: Vol. 19: No. 3, pp 307-330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/100.00022062

Publication Date: 10 Jun 2024
© 2024 D. P. Green et al.
 
Subjects
Hypothesis testing,  Semiparametric and nonparametric estimation,  Treatment modeling,  Voting,  Elections,  Electoral behavior,  Voting behavior
 
Keywords
Voter turnoutelectionsvoter mobilizationbillboardsadvertising
 

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In this article:
Competing Theoretical Perspectives 
Experimental Design 
Details on imputed exposures 
Results 
Conclusion 
References 

Abstract

Although an extensive experimental literature has tested a wide array of voter mobilization tactics, billboard advertisements have seldom been evaluated, and studies to date have been limited to a small number of sites. This essay reports results from a nationwide experiment conducted during the 2020 general election in the United States. Experimental sites were ethnically diverse locations in metro areas, including both presidential battlegrounds as well as places with no closely contested races. A total of 298 billboards were randomly assigned to treatment or control in 155 geographic clusters. Exposure to billboards by residential location is modelled using cell phone usage patterns. Turnout is measured using public records for residents living at various distances from randomly assigned billboards. Using a variety of estimation approaches, we obtain point estimates that are close to zero, with hints of stronger effects among those who reside near treated billboards. On the whole, it appears that signage does little to raise turnout in high-salience elections.

DOI:10.1561/100.00022062

Online Appendix | 100.00022062_app.pdf

This is the article's accompanying appendix.

DOI: 10.1561/100.00022062_app

Replication Data | 100.00022062_supp.zip (ZIP).

This file contains the data that is required to replicate the data on your own system.

DOI: 10.1561/100.00022062_supp