Closeness Counts If It Matters for Electoral Victory: Some Empirical Results for the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany

Gebhard Kirchgässner and Jorg Schimmelpfenning

Public Choice, 1992, vol. 73, issue 3, 283-99

Abstract: It has been argued that closeness counts not only with respect to the overall decision of a (general) election but also with respect to the outcome in subelectorates. This proposition is tested using data both from the last German Bundestagswahl as well as the U.K. general election in 1987. The authors find that (expected) closeness counts for turnout on the level of the individual electoral district but not on any level below, e.g., on the level of precincts. Therefore, closeness seems to count only if it is relevant for electoral victories or defeats. Copyright 1992 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:kap:pubcho:v:73:y:1992:i:3:p:283-99

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/11127/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Public Choice is currently edited by WIlliam F. Shughart II

More articles in Public Choice from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().