Vote Trading With and Without Party Leaders

Alessandra Casella, Thomas Palfrey and Turban, Sébastien

No 8848, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Two groups of voters of known sizes disagree over a single binary decision to be taken by simple majority. Individuals have different, privately observed intensities of preferences and before voting can buy or sell votes among themselves for money. We study the implication of such trading for outcomes and welfare when trades are coordinated by the two group leaders and when they take place anonymously in a competitive market. The theory has strong predictions. In both cases, trading falls short of full efficiency, but for opposite reasons: with group leaders, the minority wins too rarely; with market trades, the minority wins too often. As a result, with group leaders, vote trading improves over no-trade; with market trades, vote trading can be welfare reducing. All predictions are strongly supported by experimental results.

Keywords: Bargaining; Competitive equilibrium; Experiments; Votes market; Voting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C78 C92 D70 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Journal Article: Vote trading with and without party leaders (2014)
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