Diminishing the Effect of Vote-Buying on Electoral Outcomes in India

Vote-buying is a widespread practice in developing countries that may undermine the accountability and responsiveness of elected officials, especially to the needs of the poor. One way to reduce the incidence of vote-buying is by diminishing its effectiveness. We hypothesize that strengthening the faith voters place in the secret ballot will reduce the distortionary effect of bribes on voter behavior. We propose to design, deploy, and evaluate such an anti-vote-buying radio campaign prior to the April 2014 national elections in India to test this hypothesis.