The (sub-)optimality of the majority rule

Patrick Schmitz and Thomas Tröger
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Thomas Troeger

Games and Economic Behavior, 2012, vol. 74, issue 2, 651-665

Abstract: We consider collective choice from two alternatives. Ex-ante, each agent is uncertain about which alternative she prefers, and may be uncertain about the intensity of her preferences. An environment is given by a probability distribution over utility vectors that is symmetric across agents and neutral across alternatives. In many environments, the majority voting rule maximizes agentsʼ ex-ante expected utilities among all anonymous and dominant-strategy implementable choice rules. But in some environments where the agentsʼ utilities are stochastically correlated, other dominant-strategy choice rules are better for all agents. If utilities are stochastically independent across agents, majority voting is ex-ante optimal among all anonymous and incentive-compatible rules. We also compare rules from an interim-viewpoint.

Keywords: Majority rule; Mechanism design; Correlated values; Utilitarianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

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Working Paper: The (sub-)optimality of the majority rule (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:74:y:2012:i:2:p:651-665

DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2011.08.002

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