Paper #525

Title:

Campaign rhetoric: A model of reputation

Authors:

Enriqueta Aragonés and Andrew Postlewaite

Date:

September 2000

Abstract:

We analyze conditions under which a candidate's campaign rhetoric may affect the beliefs of the voters over what policy the candidate will implement in case he wins the election. We develop a model of repeated elections with complete information in which candidates are purely ideological. Voter's strategies involve a credible threat to punish candidates that renege of their campaign promises, and in equilibrium all campaign promises are believed by voters, and honored by candidates. We obtain that the degree to which promises are credible in equilibrium is an increasing function of the value of a candidate's reputation.

Keywords:

Electoral campaigns, reputation, commitment

JEL codes:

D72

Area of Research:

Microeconomics

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