讲座主题：

Experimental Evidence About the Effects of Question Wording on Support for Ballot Referenda

主讲人： 

Mark Robbins, Department of Public Policy, University of Connecticut

主持人：高翔 公共管理学院

时间：2018年12月3日下午2:00

地点：蒙民伟楼357室

We report on an experiment where a representative sample of United States residents are given ballot language on a measure to borrow $25 million through a bond sale and then asked whether they would vote in support or opposition of it. 

The treatment conditions vary such that the support of the groups receiving general or specific information about the taxpayer cost to repay the debt can be compared to those receiving no such information. 

We also evaluate an option that adds a service outcome statement to notification that voting “yes” also means voting to increase property taxes. We find a persistent negative effect of cost information on the probability of support for school bond referenda across all treatments compared to the base case without the information. Our results show that the probability of voting yes decreases by between 5 and 9 percentage points depending on the treatment. 

These results persists across multiple specifications. The effects are robust across populations, with only those with high levels of education showing no statistically significant effect of the treatment on their support for school referenda.