Abstract: The study of political participation through experimental methods has allowed social scientists to investigate the causal determinants of individual and collective political behavior in a controlled environment. Using the game theoretic pivotal voter model framework, I present experimental data on the relationship between group identity, social preferences, mobilization and political participation. This work puts forward novel procedures, like how to experimentally manipulate the attachment of subjects to groups or how to mimic political mobilization processes. The main results show that group identity seems to matter only slightly for participation, more altruistic subjects tend to participate more, and mobilization only boosts participation when accompanied by an appeal that creates a norm for the group.

Short Bio:
Pedro Robalo is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute, where he obtained his MPhil in Economics in 2010. He holds an MSc and a BSc in Economics from the Nova School of Business and Economics. His research focuses on political economy, experimental economics and behavioral economics. He primarily studies the role of non-standard individual preferences on political behavior using the tools of game theory and experimental economics. His secondary line of research focuses on individual decision making and biases, for which he received the Unicredit best paper award in Organizational Behavioral Economics 2013. As of 2014, Pedro will join the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, Germany as a Research Fellow.