Nash on a rotary: two theorems with implications for electoral politics

Kaushik Basu and Tapan Mitra

No 7701, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The paper provides a complete characterization of Nash equilibria for games in which n candidates choose a strategy in the form of a platform, each from a circle of feasible platforms, with the aim of maximizing the stretch of the circle from where the candidate?s platform will receive support from the voters. Using this characterization, it is shown that if the sum of all players? payoffs is 1, the Nash equilibrium payoff of each player in an arbitrary Nash equilibrium must be restricted to the interval [1/2(n ? 1), 2/(n + 1)]. This implies that in an election with four candidates, a candidate who is attracting less than one-sixth of the voters can do better by changing his or her strategy.

Keywords: Peace&Peacekeeping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-06-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-gth, nep-hpe, nep-mic and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7701

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