N Parameters
Using the data from an experiment to find out whether and to what extent people are motivated to vote by social pressure, we found the causal effect on voter participation of sending postcards in the Texas gubernatorial general election of 2026. Stability might not be true because the way people view politics has changed from 2006 because of new things such as social media. We modeled primary_06, a binary 0/1 integer variable indicating whether the respondent voted in the 2006 primary election, and the type of postcard they recieved. People who have been voting in the past are more likely to vote again. If we had a limited number of postcards, we would send the Neighbors postcard to citizens who already demonstrate a tendency to vote. This is our best guess. It is an informed estimate based on the most relevant data possible. From that data, we have created a 95% confidence interval for the treatment effect of various postcards: between 8% to 10%.
\[y_{i} = \beta_{0} + \beta_{1} age\_z + \beta_{2}male_i + \beta_{3}civic\_duty_i + \\ \beta_{4}hawthorne_i + \beta_{5}self_i + \beta_{6}neighbors_i + \\ \beta_{7}Sometimes\ vote_i + \beta_{8}Always\ vote_i + \\ \beta_{9}civic\_duty_i Sometimes\ vote_i + \beta_{10}hawthorne_i Sometimes\ vote_i + \\ \beta_{11}self_i Sometimes\ vote_i + \beta_{11}neighbors_i Sometimes\ vote_i + \\ \beta_{12}civic\_duty_i Always\ vote_i + \beta_{13}hawthorne_i Always\ vote_i + \\ \beta_{14}self_i Always\ vote_i + \beta_{15}neighbors_i Always\ vote_i + \epsilon_{i}\]
Characteristic |
Beta |
95% CI 1 |
|---|---|---|
| (Intercept) | 0.155 | 0.137, 0.174 |
| age_z | 0.036 | 0.031, 0.042 |
| sex | ||
| sexMale | 0.004 | -0.005, 0.014 |
| treatment | ||
| No Postcard | — | — |
| treatmentCivicDuty | 0.016 | -0.027, 0.057 |
| Hawthorne | 0.004 | -0.037, 0.043 |
| Self | -0.007 | -0.049, 0.035 |
| Neighbors | 0.084 | 0.041, 0.126 |
| voter_class | ||
| Rarely Vote | — | — |
| voter_classSometimesVote | 0.115 | 0.095, 0.135 |
| voter_classAlwaysVote | 0.298 | 0.275, 0.321 |
| treatment * voter_class | ||
| treatmentCivicDuty * voter_classSometimesVote | -0.005 | -0.051, 0.043 |
| Hawthorne * voter_classSometimesVote | 0.010 | -0.033, 0.054 |
| Self * voter_classSometimesVote | 0.059 | 0.012, 0.106 |
| Neighbors * voter_classSometimesVote | -0.009 | -0.057, 0.038 |
| treatmentCivicDuty * voter_classAlwaysVote | -0.009 | -0.061, 0.045 |
| Hawthorne * voter_classAlwaysVote | 0.034 | -0.017, 0.086 |
| Self * voter_classAlwaysVote | 0.047 | -0.007, 0.100 |
| Neighbors * voter_classAlwaysVote | -0.002 | -0.056, 0.050 |
| 1
CI = Credible Interval |
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