IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/sfb649/sfb649dp2007-068.html

Why votes have a value

Author

Listed:
  • Dittmann, Ingolf
  • Kübler, Dorothea
  • Maug, Ernst
  • Mechtenberg, Lydia

Abstract

We perform an experiment where subjects pay for the right to participate in a shareholder vote. We find that experimental subjects are willing to pay a significant premium for the voting right even though there should be no such premium in our setup under full rationality. Private benefits from controlling the firm are absent from our setup and overconfidence cannot explain the size of the observed voting premium. The premium disappears in treatments where voting has no material consequences for the subjects. We conclude that individuals enjoy being part of a group that exercises power and are therefore willing to pay for the right to vote even when the impact of their own vote on their payoffs is negligible.

Suggested Citation

  • Dittmann, Ingolf & Kübler, Dorothea & Maug, Ernst & Mechtenberg, Lydia, 2007. "Why votes have a value," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2007-068, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:sfb649:sfb649dp2007-068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/25240/1/558653138.PDF
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maynes, Elizabeth, 1996. "Takeover Rights and the Value of Restricted Shares," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 19(2), pages 157-173, Summer.
    2. Barclay, Michael J. & Holderness, Clifford G., 1989. "Private benefits from control of public corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 371-395, December.
    3. Geoffrey Brennan & Alan Hamlin, 1998. "Expressive voting and electoral equilibrium," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 149-175, April.
    4. Elizabeth Maynes, 1996. "Takeover Rights And The Value Of Restricted Shares," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 19(2), pages 157-173, June.
    5. Shmuel Hauser, 2004. "The Value of Voting Rights to Majority Shareholders: Evidence from Dual-Class Stock Unifications," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 1167-1184.
    6. Guarnaschelli, Serena & McKelvey, Richard D. & Palfrey, Thomas R., 2000. "An Experimental Study of Jury Decision Rules," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 94(2), pages 407-423, June.
    7. Luigi Zingales, 1995. "What Determines the Value of Corporate Votes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 1047-1073.
    8. Richard McKelvey & Thomas Palfrey, 2015. "Erratum to: Quantal response equilibria for extensive form games," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 18(4), pages 762-763, December.
    9. Horner, Melchior R., 1988. "The value of the corporate voting right : Evidence from Switzerland," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 69-83, March.
    10. Zingales, Luigi, 1994. "The Value of the Voting Right: A Study of the Milan Stock Exchange Experience," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 125-148.
    11. Megginson, William L, 1990. "Restricted Voting Stock, Acquisition Premiums, and the Market Value of Corporate Control," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 175-198, May.
    12. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    13. Timothy Feddersen & Alvaro Sandroni, 2006. "A Theory of Participation in Elections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1271-1282, September.
    14. Smith, Brian F. & Amoako-Adu, Ben, 1995. "Relative Prices of Dual Class Shares," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 223-239, June.
    15. Levine, David K. & Palfrey, Thomas R., 2007. "The Paradox of Voter Participation? A Laboratory Study," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 101(1), pages 143-158, February.
    16. Riker, William H. & Ordeshook, Peter C., 1968. "A Theory of the Calculus of Voting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 25-42, March.
    17. Thomas Palfrey & Howard Rosenthal, 1983. "A strategic calculus of voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 7-53, January.
    18. Riker, William H. & Ordeshook, Peter C., 1968. "A Theory of the Calculus of Voting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 25-42, March.
    19. Myerson, Roger B., 1998. "Extended Poisson Games and the Condorcet Jury Theorem," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 111-131, October.
    20. Rydqvist, Kristian, 1996. "Takeover bids and the relative prices of shares that differ in their voting rights," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1407-1425, September.
    21. Lease, Ronald C. & McConnell, John J. & Mikkelson, Wayne H., 1983. "The market value of control in publicly-traded corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-4), pages 439-471, April.
    22. Tyran, Jean-Robert, 2004. "Voting when money and morals conflict: an experimental test of expressive voting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1645-1664, July.
    23. Daske, Stefan & Ehrhardt, Olaf, 2002. "Kursunterschiede und Renditen deutscher Stamm- und Vorzugsaktien," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2002,5, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    24. Schram, Arthur & Sonnemans, Joep, 1996. "Voter Turnout as a Participation Game: An Experimental Investigation," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 25(3), pages 385-406.
    25. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda, 1985. "Managerial ownership of voting rights : A study of public corporations with dual classes of common stock," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 33-69, March.
    26. Schram, Arthur, 1997. "Do People Care about Democracy?: Comment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 49-51, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Aimone, Jason A. & Butera, Luigi & Stratmann, Thomas, 2018. "Altruistic punishment in elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-160.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dittmann, Ingolf, 2004. "Block Trading, Ownership Structure, and the Value of Corporate Votes," Papers 2004,13, Humboldt University of Berlin, Center for Applied Statistics and Economics (CASE).
    2. Dittmann, Ingolf & Kübler, Dorothea & Maug, Ernst & Mechtenberg, Lydia, 2014. "Why votes have value: Instrumental voting with overconfidence and overestimation of others' errors," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 17-38.
    3. Renée Adams & Daniel Ferreira, 2008. "One Share-One Vote: The Empirical Evidence," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(1), pages 51-91.
    4. Herrade Igerseim & Antoinette Baujard & Jean-François Laslier, 2016. "La question du vote. Expérimentations en laboratoire et In Situ," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 92(1-2), pages 151-189.
    5. Kind, Axel & Poltera, Marco & Zaia, Johannes, 2024. "The value of say on pay," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    6. Herrade Igersheim & Antoinette Baujard & Jean-François Laslier, 2016. "La question du vote. Expérimentations en laboratoire et In Situ," Working Papers halshs-01402275, HAL.
    7. Carvalhal da Silva, Andre & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2007. "Dual-class premium, corporate governance, and the mandatory bid rule: Evidence from the Brazilian stock market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, March.
    8. Berezinets, Irina & Ilina, Yulia & Muravyev, Alexander, 2011. "CEO and Board Characteristics as Determinants of Private Benefits of Control: Evidence from the Russian Stock Exchange," IZA Discussion Papers 6256, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Bigelli, Marco & Croci, Ettore, 2013. "Dividend privileges and the value of voting rights: Evidence from Italy," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 94-107.
    10. Berezinets Irina & Ilina Yulia & Muravyev Alexander, 2011. "Owners, Boards, Managers and the Private Benefits of Control: A Study of Dual Class Stock Firms in an Emerging Market," EERC Working Paper Series 11/12e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    11. Odegaard, Bernt Arne, 2007. "Price differences between equity classes. Corporate control, foreign ownership or liquidity?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3621-3645, December.
    12. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01136390 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Aimone, Jason A. & Butera, Luigi & Stratmann, Thomas, 2018. "Altruistic punishment in elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-160.
    14. Nenova, Tatiana, 2003. "The value of corporate voting rights and control: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 325-351, June.
    15. de La Bruslerie, Hubert, 2025. "News flow as a determinant of the voting premium of dual-class shares," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Cameron Guage & Feng Fu, 2021. "Asymmetric Partisan Voter Turnout Games," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 738-758, December.
    17. Malenko, Nadya & Levit, Doron & Maug, Ernst, 2021. "The voting premium," CEPR Discussion Papers 15718, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Antonio Merlo & Thomas R. Palfrey, 2018. "External validation of voter turnout models by concealed parameter recovery," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 297-314, July.
    19. Marco Faravelli & Kenan Kalayci & Carlos Pimienta, 2020. "Costly voting: a large-scale real effort experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 468-492, June.
    20. Doidge, Craig, 2004. "U.S. cross-listings and the private benefits of control: evidence from dual-class firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 519-553, June.
    21. Julien Le Maux, 2003. "Les bénéfices privés:une rupture de l'égalité entre actionnaires," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 6(1), pages 63-92, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:zbw:sfb649:sfb649dp2007-068. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sohubde.html .

    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.