CeDEx
Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics

CeDEx workshop - Aniol Llorente-Saguer (Queen Mary)

Date(s)
Wednesday 6th November 2013 (14:00-15:00)
Description

Divided Majority and Information Aggregation: Theory and Experiment

Abstract: This paper studies theoretically and experimentally the properties of plurality and approval voting when a majority gets divided by information imperfections. The majority faces two challenges: aggregating information to select the best majority candidate and coordinating to defeat the minority candidate. Under plurality, the majority cannot achieve both goals at once. Under approval voting, it can: welfare is strictly higher because some voters approve of both majority alternatives. In the laboratory, we find (i) strong evidence of strategic voting, and (ii) superiority of approval voting over plurality. Finally, subject behavior suggests the need to study equilibria in asymmetric strategies.

 

Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics

Sir Clive Granger Building
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 5458
Enquiries: jose.guinotsaporta@nottingham.ac.uk
Experiments: cedex@nottingham.ac.uk