How Does Political Uncertainty Affect the Optimal Degree of Policy Divergence?

Emre Aytimur, Aris Boukouras and Richard M. H. Suen

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: We examine how the optimal degree of policy divergence between two policy platforms in an election is affected by two types of aggregate uncertainty: policy-related and candidate-specific. We show that when the candidate-specific uncertainty is sufficiently large, policy convergence becomes optimal. We also show that when these two types of uncertainty co-exist, only purely office-motivated parties result in policy convergence, in other words, any level of policy motivation of parties results in some policy divergence, making policy motivation undesirable when candidate-specific uncertainty is sufficiently large.

Keywords: Voting; Policy Divergence; Polarisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:122279

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