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Strategic voting when participation is costly

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  • Xefteris, Dimitrios

Abstract

We study a general multiparty model of plurality rule elections with costly participation, and prove that strategic voting – that is, situations in which some voters abandon their most preferred alternative and vote strategically for the serious contender they dislike less – may emerge in equilibrium; just like when participation is costless/compulsory (Palfrey, 1989). This qualifies opposite claims made in more confined setups (e.g. Arzumanyan and Polborn, 2017), and establishes that Duverger's psychological effect is present in a much larger set of cases than currently believed.

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  • Xefteris, Dimitrios, 2019. "Strategic voting when participation is costly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 122-127.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:116:y:2019:i:c:p:122-127
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2019.04.010
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    Cited by:

    1. Konstantinou, Panagiotis Th. & Panagiotidis, Theodore & Roumanias, Costas, 2021. "State-dependent effect on voter turnout: The case of US House elections," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 753-765.
    2. Gersbach, Hans & Mamageishvili, Akaki & Tejada, Oriol, 2019. "The Effect of Handicaps on Turnout for Large Electorates: An Application to Assessment Voting," CEPR Discussion Papers 13921, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Kemal Kıvanç Aköz & Alexei Zakharov, 2023. "Electoral turnout with divided opposition," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 60(3), pages 439-475, April.
    4. Ružica Savčić & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2021. "Apostolic voting," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1400-1417, November.
    5. Mamageishvili, Akaki & Tejada, Oriol, 2023. "Large elections and interim turnout," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 175-210.
    6. Gersbach, Hans & Mamageishvili, Akaki & Tejada, Oriol, 2021. "The effect of handicaps on turnout for large electorates with an application to assessment voting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multiparty elections; Plurality rule; Costly voting; Duverger's law; Strategic voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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