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Policy-Motivated Candidates, Noisy Platforms, and Non-Robustness

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  • Johan Lagerlöf

Abstract

A model of a two-candidate election is developed in which the candidates are mainly office-motivated but also to some arbitrarily small extent policy-motivated, and their chosen platforms are to some arbitrarily small extent noisy. The platforms’ being noisy means that if a candidate has chosen a particular platform, the voters’ perception is that she has, with positive probability, actually chosen some other platform. It is shown that (i) an equilibrium in which the candidates play pure exists whether or not there is a Condorcet winner among the policy alternatives, and (ii) in this equilibrium the candidates choose their ideal points, which means that the platforms do not converge. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Politikmotivierte Kandidaten, Plattformen mit Rauschen und Nichtrobustheit) In der Arbeit werden die Bedingungen identifiziert, unter denen im Gleichgewicht eines symmetrischen Modells einige, in der Produktionskette vorgelagerte Firmen vertikale Trennung wählen, während andere sich für vertikale Integration entscheiden. Ein vertikal getrenntes Unternehmen wägt die fixen Vertragskosten gegen den strategischen Vorteil eines Vertrages (mit gespaltenem Tarif und exklusiven Vertriebsrechten) mit dem nachgelagerten Einzelhändler ab. Die Koexistenz der beiden Organisationsformen im Gleichgewicht entsteht, wenn den nachgelagerten Cournot-Oligopolisten, die fast perfekte Substitute produzieren, beobachtbare und nicht nachverhandelbare Verträge angeboten werden. Die Koexistenz der Organisationsformen im Gleichgewicht tritt weniger häufig auf, wenn die Annahmen bezüglich der Beobachtbarkeit der Verträge und der Möglichkeit sich zu binden, gelockert werden.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Lagerlöf, 2000. "Policy-Motivated Candidates, Noisy Platforms, and Non-Robustness," CIG Working Papers FS IV 00-17, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
  • Handle: RePEc:wzb:wzebiv:fsiv00-17
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electoral Competition; Policy Motivation; Noisy Commitment; Convergence; Robustness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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