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Compulsory and Voluntary Voting Mechanisms: An Experimental Study

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  • Sourav Bhattacharya
  • John Duffy
  • Sun-Tak Kim

Abstract

We report on an experiment comparing compulsory and voluntary voting mechanisms. Theory predicts that these different mechanisms have different implications both for the sincerity of the voting decisions and for the participation decisions of voters, and we find strong support for these theoretical predictions in our experimental data. Voters are able to adapt the sincerity of their votes or their participation decisions to the different voting mechanisms in such a way as to make the welfare differences between these mechanisms negligible. We argue that this finding may account for the co-existence of these two voting mechanisms in nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Sourav Bhattacharya & John Duffy & Sun-Tak Kim, 2011. "Compulsory and Voluntary Voting Mechanisms: An Experimental Study," Working Paper 456, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Mar 2013.
    • Handle: RePEc:pit:wpaper:456
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alexander Elvitar & Andrei Gomberg & César Martinelli & Thomas R. Palfrey, 2014. "Ignorance and bias in collective decision:Theory and experiments," Working Papers 1401, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.

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