any prudent rationalizable election outcome is the same as if voters have full awareness of issues and complete …

number of parties contesting the election and the endogenous level of campaign spending. These two dimensions are linked …

To the extent that election campaigns are simply advertising campaigns, they should not contribute directly to social … welfare. Yet election campaigns are often very costly. Why do such costly campaigns arise as the norm? If they do not benefit … society, should campaign expenditures be limited? However, costly election campaigns can benefit society indirectly by …

If (often costly) election campaigns are simply advertising, they do not increase social welfare directly. Given this …