One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation

Laurent Bouton () and Micael Castanheira ()

No 6695, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper compares the properties of three electoral systems when voters have imperfect information. Imperfect information blurs voter decisions and may divorce the electoral outcome from the true preferences of the electorate. The challenge for electoral design is therefore to translate the (sometimes contradictory) elements of information dispersed in the electorate into the most efficient aggregate outcome. We propose a novel model of multi-candidate elections in Poisson games, and show that Approval Voting produces a unique equilibrium that is fully efficient: the candidate who wins the election is the one preferred by a majority of the electorate under full information. By contrast, traditional systems such as Plurality and Runoff elections cannot cope satisfactorily with information imperfections.

Keywords: Approval Voting; Information Aggregation; Multicandidate Elections; Poisson Games (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D72 D81 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-gth and nep-pol
Date: 2008-02
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6695.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: One person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6695

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6695.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().