IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v84y1998i0p3-2710.1023-a1018997105830.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nash equilibrium in multiparty competitionwith “stochastic” voters

Author

Listed:
  • Norman Schofield
  • Itai Sened
  • David Nixon

Abstract

Theoretical spatial models of electoral voting tend to predict either convergence to an electoral mean (when voting is probabilistic) or chaos (when voting is deterministic). Here, we construct an empirical model of voting for the Israeli Knesset in 1992 (based on a large electoral sample and on analysis of party declarations). The probabilistic voting model so estimated fits the known election results. We then use the same model to simulate the effect of expected vote maximization by the parties. Contrary to the usual results, there is no unique convergent Nash equilibrium under this objective function. We do infer, however, that the two large parties are “Downsian”, in the sense that they maximize expected vote (up to the margin of error of the model). We suggest that the empirical results are compatible with a hybrid model of utility maximization, where each party computes the effects of its policy declaration both in terms of electoral response and of post-election coalition negotations. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998

Suggested Citation

  • Norman Schofield & Itai Sened & David Nixon, 1998. "Nash equilibrium in multiparty competitionwith “stochastic” voters," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 84(0), pages 3-27, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:84:y:1998:i:0:p:3-27:10.1023/a:1018997105830
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1018997105830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1018997105830
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1018997105830?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schofield, Norman & Parks, Robert, 2000. "Nash equilibrium in a spatial model of coalition bargaining," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 133-174, March.
    2. James F. Adams & Ernest W. Adams, 2000. "The Geometry of Voting Cycles," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 12(2), pages 131-153, April.
    3. Samuel Merrill III & James Adams, 2002. "Centrifugal Incentives in Multi-Candidate Elections," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 14(3), pages 275-300, July.
    4. Marek M. Kaminski, 2002. "Do Parties Benefit from Electoral Manipulation? Electoral Laws and Heresthetics in Poland, 1989-93," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 14(3), pages 325-358, July.
    5. Benček, David, 2016. "Opportunistic candidates and knowledgeable voters: A recipe for extreme views," Kiel Working Papers 2047, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:84:y:1998:i:0:p:3-27:10.1023/a:1018997105830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.