TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zittel, Thomas
A1  - Louwerse, Tom
A1  - Pedersen, Helene Helboe
A1  - Schakel, Wouter
T1  - Should we conduct correspondence study field experiments with political elites?
T2  - International political science review
N2  - Correspondence study field experiments with political elites are a recent addition to legislative studies research, in which unsolicited emails are sent to elites to gauge their responsiveness. In this article, we discuss their ethical implications. We advance from the viewpoint that correspondence study field experiments involve trade-offs between costs and benefits that need to be carefully weighted. We elaborate this argument with two contributions in mind. First, we synthesize ethical considerations in published work to explore what the specific trade-offs are and how they can be mitigated by experimental design. We conclude that correspondence study field experiments with political elites are worth pursuing given their potential to further good governance. But they also involve distinct trade-offs that are particularly challenging. Second, we draw from our own considerations while designing a comparative correspondence study field experiment and stress challenges resulting from cross-national designs. In sum, we aim to facilitate further reasoned discussion on an important methodological issue.
KW  - Field experiments
KW  - legislators
KW  - legislative studies
KW  - research ethics
KW  - political representation
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/62500
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-625007
SN  - 1460-373X
N1  - The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant Number: ZI 608/8-1) and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk (Grant Number: 464.18.108).
N1  - Early View: Online Version before inclusion in an issue.
VL  - 2021
IS  - online version before inclusion in an issue
SP  - 1
EP  - 12
PB  - Sage
CY  - Thousand Oaks, Calif.
ER  -