Paper #900

Título:

Voting with preferences over margins of victory

Autor:

Humberto Llavador

Data:

Octubre 2005

Resumen:

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.

Palabras clave:

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

Códigos JEL:

D72

Área de investigación:

Economía Laboral, Pública, de Desarrollo y de la Salud

Publicado en:

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

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