Victoria Mooers (Alesina Seminar)

Speaker & Title

Victoria Mooers (University of Chicago), "Social Networks and Voter Information"

Abstract

Informed voters are essential for government accountability, and social networks are an important avenue through which voters acquire political information. However, U.S. House of Representatives districts do not necessarily align with social networks. This misalignment potentially impacts the ease with which voters learn about their representatives, by altering the chance of encountering friends who provide relevant political information. I study whether the alignment between district boundaries and social networks affects voter knowledge, turnout, and campaign contributions in congressional elections. Using Facebook's Social Connectedness Index and an event study design, I find that an increase in the share of friends living in the same district increases voters' knowledge about their representative. For example, a 10 percentage point increase in this share raises the probability that a voter knows their representative's party by 3.3 percentage points; this represents a 5% increase over the mean. Additionally, a higher share of friends in the same district increases voter turnout in House elections and shifts campaign contributions towards own-district House candidates. These findings suggest that aligning political boundaries with social networks can enhance democratic engagement.