Measuring electoral competitiveness: A Probability ratio index

Satya Chakravarty, Manipushpak Mitra, Suresh Mutuswami () and Rupayan Pal
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Suresh Mutuswami: University of Leicester

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India

Abstract: We propose an index of electoral competition based on the vote shares of parties competing in the election. This index is the ratio between the probabilities that the two voters drawn at random with (without) replacement have voted for different parties under actual vote shares across the competing parties and under equal vote shares across them. The measure is characterized using two simple axioms, consistency in aggregation and competitive indifference. The former expresses the index as a weighted sum of competitiveness in two party elections. The latter is concerned with redistribution of vote shares across parties.

Keywords: electoral competition; probability ratio index; electoral concentration; political heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2019-014

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