Additive valence and the single-crossing property

Fabian Gouret

No 2024-05, THEMA Working Papers from THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise

Abstract: To enhance the realism of the spatial model of voting, several authors have added a valence parameter into a Downsian utility function. However, when doing so, they rarely discuss the value that the exponent on the distance between voters and candidates should take. For some values of the exponent and the valence- advantage of one candidate over another one, the single-crossing property cannot be assumed. This paper underscores the importance of this consideration by providing first a necessary and sufficient condition for this property not being satisfied. I then discuss the identification of the key parameters in two econometric frameworks to realize various hypothesis tests related to the single-crossing property. I use data from pre-election surveys of the American National Election Studies. I mainly focus on the 2008 Presidential election, and find some evidence against the single-crossing hypothesis. I also discuss the results with more recent US Presidential elections, but it is more difficult to find evidence against this hypothesis.

Keywords: spatial models of voting; valence; single-crossing property; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-mac, nep-pol and nep-upt
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ema:worpap:2024-05

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