How voters use grade scales in evaluative voting

Antoinette Baujard, Frédéric Gavrel, Herrade Igersheim, Jean-François Laslier and Isabelle Lebon

No 1729, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: During the first round of the 2012 French presidential election, participants in an in situ experiment were invited to vote according to “evaluative voting”, which involves rating the candidates using a numerical scale. Various scales were used: (0,1), (-1,0,1), (0,1,2), and (0,1,...,20). The paper studies scale calibration effects, i.e., how individual voters adapt to the scale, leading to possibly different election outcomes. The data show that scales are not linearly equivalent, even if individual ordinal preferences are not inconsistent. Scale matters, notably because of the symbolic power of negative grades, which does not affect all candidates uniformly.

Keywords: Evaluative Voting; Range voting; Approval voting; In Situ Experiment; Calibration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-eur, nep-exp and nep-pol
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ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2017/1729.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: How voters use grade scales in evaluative voting (2018)
Working Paper: How voters use grade scales in evaluative voting (2018)
Working Paper: How voters use grade scales in evaluative voting (2018)
Working Paper: How voters use grade scales in evaluative voting (2016)
Working Paper: How voters use grade scales in evaluative voting (2015)
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