Are Voters Rationally Ignorant? An Empirical Study for Portuguese Local Elections

José Costa () and Ester Silva ()

ERSA conference papers from European Regional Science Association

Abstract: The application of the rational choice postulate to a political context invariably leads to the conclusion that most voters are ill informed when making the decision for whom to vote. In this paper, the authors do an empirical evaluation of the rational ignorance theory, based on the results of the 1997 Portuguese Local Elections. The results only partially sustain the hypothesis of rational ignorance, although it is also possible to identify several limitations that prevent the establishment of definite conclusions in this specific field.JEL Classification: H7 Key words: VoterÂ’s Behaviour; Local Elections; Local Governments; Portugal.

Date: 2004-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-geo and nep-pol
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Related works:
Journal Article: Are voters rationally ignorant? An empirical study of Portuguese local elections (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p52

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