Paper #900

Title:

Voting with preferences over margins of victory

Author:

Humberto Llavador

Date:

October 2005 (Revised: November 2006)

Abstract:

This paper analyzes a two-alternative voting model with the distinctive feature that voters have preferences over margins of victory. We study voting contests with a finite as well as an infinite number of voters, and with and without mandatory voting. The main result of the paper is the existence and characterization of a unique equilibrium outcome in all those situations. At equilibrium, voters who prefer a larger support for one of the alternatives vote for such alternative. The model also provides a formal argument for the conditional sincerity voting condition in Alesina and Rosenthal (1995) and the benefit of voting function in Llavador (2006). Finally, we offer new insights on explaining why some citizens may vote strategically for an alternative different from the one declared as the most preferred.

Keywords:

Margin of victory, plurality, abstention, strategic voting, committee voting, elections

JEL codes:

D72

Area of Research:

Labour, Public, Development and Health Economics

Published in:

Mathematical Social Sciences, Vol. 56(3):355-365, 2008

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