Vote trading with and without party leaders

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Casella, Alessandra; Palfrey, Thomas; Turban, Sebastien
• 署名单位: Columbia University; National Bureau of Economic Research; California Institute of Technology
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.01.001
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 115-128
• 关键词: Vote trading; Majority Voting; committees; experiments

摘要

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, theoretically and experimentally, 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. The theoretical predictions are strongly supported by the experimental data. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.