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Super Majoritarianism and the Endowment Effect

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  • Uriel Procaccia

    (Hebrew University School of Law)

  • Uzi Segal

    (Boston College)

Abstract

The American and some other constitutions entrench property rights by requiring super majoritarian voting amending or revoking their own provisions. Following Buchanan and Tullock [5], this paper analyzes individuals' interests behind a veil of ignorance, and shows that under some standard assumptions, a (simple) majoritarian rule should be adopted. This result changes if one assumes that prefer- ences are consistent with the behavioral phenomenon known as the endowment effect." It then follows that (at least some) property rights are best defended by super majoritarian protection. The paper then shows that its theoretical results are consistent with a number of doctrines underlying American Constitutional Law.

Suggested Citation

  • Uriel Procaccia & Uzi Segal, 2001. "Super Majoritarianism and the Endowment Effect," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 510, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 18 Mar 2002.
    • Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:510
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Giuseppe Attanasi & Luca CORAZZINI & Nikolaos GEORGANTZIS & Francesco PASSARELLI, 2009. "Risk Aversion, Over-Confidence and Private Information as determinants of Majority Thresholds," LERNA Working Papers 09.26.302, LERNA, University of Toulouse.
    2. Zhang, Xiaobin & Ye, Yanmei & Wang, Mengran & Yu, Zhenning & Luo, Jiaojiao, 2018. "The micro administrative mechanism of land reallocation in land consolidation: A perspective from collective action," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 547-558.

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