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Should Straw Polls be Banned?

Author

Listed:
  • S. Nageeb Ali

    (Department of Economics, Penn State University)

  • Aislinn Bohren

    (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

A Principal appoints a committee of partially informed experts to choose a policy. The experts' preferences are aligned with each other but conflict with hers. We study whether she gains from banning committee members from communicating or "deliberating" before voting. Our main result is that if the committee plays its preferred equilibrium and the Principal must use a threshold voting rule, then she does not gain from banning deliberation. We show using examples how she can gain if she can choose the equilibrium played by the committee, or use a non-anonymous or non-monotone social choice rule.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Nageeb Ali & Aislinn Bohren, 2018. "Should Straw Polls be Banned?," PIER Working Paper Archive 18-022, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 20 Sep 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:pen:papers:18-022
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Marco Battaglini & Rebecca B. Morton & Eleonora Patacchini, 2020. "Social Groups and the Effectiveness of Protests," Working Papers 20200039, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Feb 2020.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information Aggregation; Committees; Deliberation; Collusion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty

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