A Group Rule–Utilitarian Approach to Voter Turnout: Theory and Evidence

Stephen Coate and Michael Conlin ()

American Economic Review, 2004, vol. 94, issue 5, 1476-1504

Abstract: This paper explores a group rule–utilitarian approach to understanding voter turnout, inspired by the theoretical work of John C. Harsanyi (1980) and Timothy J. Feddersen and Alvaro Sandroni (2002). It develops a model based on this approach and studies its performance in explaining turnout in Texas liquor referenda. The results are encouraging: the comparative static predictions of the model are broadly consistent with the data, and a structurally estimated version of the model yields reasonable coefficient estimates and fits the data well. The structurally estimated model also outperforms a simple expressive voting model.

Date: 2004
Note: DOI: 10.1257/0002828043052231
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (215)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/0002828043052231 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/dec04_data_coate.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:94:y:2004:i:5:p:1476-1504

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().