Managers as message makers: a conjoint experiment on information framing and citizen support for local sales tax referenda

Local option sales taxes in the United States are an interesting form of direct democracy that is influenced directly by public managers. The referenda, or ballot measures, in which people vote on sales taxes have multiple features that can be presented in a variety of ways. As such, they represent a unique opportunity to study the behavioral impact of options and information on citizen choice. With this research, we develop a novel experiment that uses the logic of a conjoint design by varying all of the key features in the referenda, but presents that information in a paragraph form that mimics the format of actual referenda. Results of this sales tax ballot conjoint experiment show that, in general, people only focus on a few key pieces of information, but specific sub-groups are interested in more and different features of the proposed sales tax. This suggests that managers may have more influence among key demographics, and knowing the attributes that matter to those demographics may help shape how sales tax ballot referenda are presented.