Existence of a Condorcet winner when voters have other-regarding preferences

Sanjit Dhami and Ali al-Nowaihi ()

No 07/16, Discussion Papers in Economics from Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester

Abstract: In standard political economy models, voters are ‘self-interested’ i.e. care only about ‘own’ utility. However, the emerging evidence indicates that voters often have ‘other-regarding preferences’ (ORP), i.e., in deciding among alternative policies voters care about their payoffs relative to others. We extend a widely used general equilibrium framework in political economy to allow for voters with ORP, as in Fehr- Schmidt (1999). In line with the evidence, these preferences allow voters to exhibit ‘envy’ and ‘altruism’, in addition to the standard concern for ‘own utility’. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a Condorcet winner when voters have ORP. This could open the way for an incorporation of ORP in a variety of political economy models. Furthermore, as a corollary, we give more general conditions for the existence of a Condorcet winner when voters have purely selfish preferences.

Keywords: Redistribution; other regarding preferences; single crossing property (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 D72 D78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-11, Revised 2008-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Related works:
Journal Article: Existence of a Condorcet Winner When Voters Have Other‐Regarding Preferences (2010)
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