Do Elections Influence Voter's Perceptions? Examining Energy Provision in India

• In Event: Elections, Representation, and Accountability in India

Abstract

Existing studies indicate that competitive elections can drive political accountability and socioeconomic development. However, this assumption assumes that elections can inform voters and allow them to form an accurate understanding of the incumbent's performance. In this paper, we propose an innovative measure of voter misconceptions by using two original large-scale household surveys of energy access in rural India. We show that it is common for voters to misperceive the quality of electricity supply in their constituencies. Our results from a regression discontinuity design reveal a significant and robust positive correlation between electoral competitiveness and the prevalence of voter misconceptions. Next, we plan to use in-depth interviews and computational text analysis to study how politicians campaign in close elections, and how their strategies may hinder voters from evaluating the quality of local public goods provision and the candidates in the elections.

Authors

• YuJung Julia Lee, Colorado State University

• Chao-yo Cheng, Birkbeck, University of London