Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/200419 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
CeDEx Discussion Paper Series No. 2017-16
Publisher: 
The University of Nottingham, Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx), Nottingham
Abstract: 
We report two studies investigating whether, and if so how, different interventions affect voter registration rates. In a natural field experiment conducted before the 2015 UK General Election, we varied messages on a postcard sent by Oxford City Council to unregistered student voters encouraging them to register to vote. Relative to a baseline, emphasising negative monetary incentives (the possibility of being fined) significantly increased registration rates, while positive monetary incentives (chances of winning a lottery) had no significant effects. In the second study, we show that the success of the negative monetary incentive intervention and failure of the positive monetary incentive intervention can be partly explained by social norms.
Subjects: 
Voter Registration
Voting
Field Experiment
Nudging
Social Norms
Fines
Rewards
JEL: 
C93
D03
D72
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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