Replication Data for: Large-Scale Evidence for the Effectiveness of Partisan GOTV Robo Calls

We document the effectiveness of automated (robo) calls for increasing voter participation in contrast to most published research which finds little or no effect from automated calls. We establish this finding in a large field experiment which mimics campaign behavior with a targeted, partisan get-out-the-vote campaign. Our findings show that across all treatments, automated calls led to three additional votes for every thousand subjects called during the 2014 midterm general election. Additionally, our experimental design allows for testing how the number of calls in a treatment, that is dosage, affects voter turnout. Here, results show that three extra calls increase the treatment effect to seven additional votes per thousand subjects called, but that too many additional calls decrease that effect to statistical insignificance in a six-call treatment.

本研究对自动化（robo）语音呼叫在提升选民投票率中的有效性进行实证记录，与多数已发表研究中自动化呼叫几乎无影响或影响微弱的结论形成鲜明对比。我们通过一项大型田野实验验证了上述结论，该实验以针对性党派投票动员（get-out-the-vote, GOTV）活动模拟竞选行为。研究结果显示，在2014年美国中期国会大选期间，所有实验组的自动化语音呼叫均能使每千名受呼叫对象的投票人数增加3票。此外，本实验设计可用于检验实验组内呼叫次数（即干预剂量）对选民投票率的影响。该部分结果表明，额外增加3次呼叫可将干预效果提升至每千名受呼叫对象投票人数增加7票，但当实验组呼叫次数增至6次时，过多的额外呼叫会使该效果降至无统计学显著性的水平。