CANDY ELASTICITY: HALLOWEEN EXPERIMENTS ON PUBLIC POLITICAL STATEMENTS

C-Tier
Journal: Economic Inquiry
Year: 2016
Volume: 54
Issue: 1
Pages: 543-547

Authors (2)

Julian Jamison (not in RePEc) Dean Karlan (Northwestern University)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="ecin12233-abs-0001"> <p xml:id="ecin12233-para-0001">We conducted experiments during trick-or-treating on Halloween in a predominantly liberal neighborhood in the weeks preceding the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. We decorated one side of a house porch with McCain material in 2008 (Romney material in 2012) and the other side with Obama material. Children were asked to choose a side, with half receiving the same candy on either side and half receiving more candy to go to the McCain/Romney side. This yields a “candy elasticity” of children's political support. Results vary by age: children ages nine and older were two to three times more likely to choose the Republican candidate when offered double candy for voting Republican compared to when offered equal candy, whereas children ages eight and under were particularly sticky and did not waver in their choice of candidate despite the offer of double candy. (JEL C93, D72, D12)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:ecinqu:v:54:y:2016:i:1:p:543-547
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25