Can Attribution Improve Accountability? Experimental Evidence from India & Ghana

• In Event: New Perspectives on Political Accountability

Abstract

Building on recent work concerning the impact of attribution on accountability, we investigate whether policy attribution influences vote choice. Recent models of electoral accountability have considered the impact of variation in policy attribution. We provide voters with information about attribution through two different channels. We provide information directly during an in-person survey in Ghana and via a partisan phone call as part of a field experiment in India. We provide information about attribution indirectly through campaign promises embedded in conjoint experiments in both settings. We examine whether and under what conditions does information about attribution increases the likelihood that voters consider attributable policy areas in their electoral decisions.

Authors

• Tanushree Goyal, Harvard University

• Robin Harding, University of Oxford