Showing 1 - 10 of 410
In this paper, we focus on the effect of belonging to one or more minority groups on the probability of success in … woman or a Muslim decreases the chances of electoral success, candidates who belong to two minority groups have an advantage … in the race. In some cases of candidates belonging to two minority groups, their chances of success are not only higher …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011810012
Using a unique field experiment from Canada, we estimate individual preference over risk and time and show considerable heterogeneity in both dimensions and relatively stable distributions across our various specifications, which include hyperbolic, quasi-hyperbolic discounting as well as...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011580855
We consider a framework where the optimal decision rule determining the collective choice depends in a simple way on the decision makers' posterior probabilities of a particular state of nature. Nevertheless, voting is generally an inefficient way to make collective choices and this paper sheds...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010457829
implementation of the socially optimal education system, while the unilingual system is too often implemented under minority rule. In …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10002529485
We exploit a discontinuity in Brazilian municipal election rules to investigate whether political competition has a causal impact on policy choices. In municipalities with less than 200,000 voters mayors are elected with a plurality of the vote. In municipalities with more than 200,000 voters a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10003931974
We develop a theory of endogenous political entrenchment in a simple two-party dynamic model of income redistribution with probabilistic voting. A partially self-interested left-wing party may implement (entrenchment) policies reducing the income of its own constituency, the lower class, in...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009535765
Much has been written about politicians' preferences for electoral systems, yet little is known about the preferences of voters. In 1993, New Zealand had a binding electoral referendum on the same day as the general election where voters chose between keeping a single plurality system (First...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011731918
This paper studies the assignment of decision makers to two committees that make decisions by a simple majority rule. There is an even number of decision makers at each of various skill levels and each committee has an odd number of members. Surprisingly, even with the symmetric assumptions in...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009309640
A conclave is a voting mechanism in which a committee selects an alternative by voting until a sufficient supermajority is reached. We study experimentally welfare properties of simple three-voter conclaves with privately known preferences over two outcomes and waiting costs. The resulting game...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011336977
This paper analyzes how to allocate experts into committees that use the unanimity rule to make decisions. We show that an optimal allocation of experts is extremely asymmetric. To reach the optimal allocation, therefore, one needs only to rank the experts in terms of their abilities and then...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011457362