So the Fall semester has begun. I show YouTube clips in my class and discuss them. If you’re interested in following along, the playlist is here and will expand as the semester goes:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B5C6A1491718E93
In the first class, I talked about texting campaign contributions, Rio drug gangs banning crack, and football players going on diets.
First, texting campaign contributions. The goal here, presumably, is to drive down the transaction cost of contributing–or at least the psychic transaction cost borne by the contributor.
A few things worth noting: this is probably aiming at people for whom texting is a regular activity–so read: younger.
Second, the contributions are for $10, which is not very much, so this is probably aiming at some kind of “warm-glow” giving, which when aggregated can really add up; the danger being that if people are substituting texting donations for $25 checks, then the campaigns are in trouble.
Finally, the transaction costs here are actually really high–the video said 40% if I recall. That means that even if these are substituting for $7 checks, the campaigns are in trouble. Unless there are some sort of external benefits of voter engagement or something, but yeah…I’m curious whether this is a flash in the pan or a new way of giving that pans out. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Uncategorized, Video analysis, a ton of crack every single day, analysis, campaign finance, cocaine, crack, drugs, economics, game theory, linebacker, microeconomics, news, NFL, Obama, politics, Rio de Janeiro, Romney, strategy, texting
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