Voting behavior and female representation: Experimental evidence from Turkey

This project explores whether policies promoting gender equality remain underrepresented in conservative countries because political elites misperceive voter demand for such policies. To estimate voter demand, we use experimental variation to evaluate voter response to campaign promises on “gender issues” compared to voters in a control group who are not exposed to the door-to-door campaign. To disentangle party or canvasser persuasion effects (supply) on voter behavior from campaign content (demand), we also estimate the differential effect of the gender-related campaign to a placebo, a second campaign treatment arm on “general issues.” The outcomes for each campaign treatment arm include local election vote shares and civic engagement, as measured by participation in town hall meetings. The town hall meetings are cross-randomized as “deliberative” or “top-down.” This design also allows us to observe whether supply-side factors, like elite persuasion, affect specific policy preferences from demand-side factors, like voter deliberation and democratic processes.