An experimental study of expressive voting

Carter, John R.; Guerette, Stephen D.

doi:10.1007/bf00140921

Cited by 87 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…7 Moreover, excluding the countries where the di¤erence between the self-reported and actual turnout rates is higher then 10% from our sample did not have any signi…cant e¤ect on our results. 8 Communicative Voting. In order to construct a variable that embodies the tradeo¤ between strategic and communicative motivations in the voting decision, we must distinguish between parties considered as likely winners and those perceived as sure losers.…”

Section: Dependent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electoral participation and communicative voting in Europe

Sobbrio

Navarra

2010

European Journal of Political Economy

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This paper provides an empirical investigation of electoral participation and communicative voting in 14 European countries. We estimate a multi-level voting process where individuals face a participation decision (whether to vote or abstain) and a voting decision (whether to vote strategically for a likely winner party or as communicating for a sure loser party). Our main …ndings can be summarized as follows. First, individuals who are either independent or uninformed are less likely to turnout. However, being both independent and uninformed does not have any statistically signi…cant e¤ect on electoral participation. Thus, our results question the empirical relevance of the swing voter's curse theory in large elections. Second, the probability of voting as communicating is positively related with the level of education and the degree of dissatisfaction with the political system. Finally, political preferences and institutional features characterizing the functioning of the political system and of the media market have a signi…cant e¤ect both on electoral participation and on the voting decision.JEL Classi…cation: D72, C25

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Section: Dependent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electoral participation and communicative voting in Europe

Sobbrio

Navarra

2010

European Journal of Political Economy

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“…10) for surveys and Schubert (2012) for an application to "happiness politics". 16 There is by now a lot of empirical support for this hypothesis, see, e.g., Carter & Guerette (1992), Jones & Hudson (2000), Tyran (2004). 7…”

Section: Roots and Consequences Of Expressive Votingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Public Choice: A Survey

Schnellenbach

Schubert²

2014

SSRN Journal

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Public choice theory has originally been motivated by the need to correct the asymmetry, widespread in traditional welfare economics, between the motivational assumptions of market participants and policymakers: Those who played the game of politics should also be considered rational and self-interested. History repeats itself with the rise of behavioral economics: Cognitive biases discovered in market participants often induce a call for rational governments to intervene. Recently, however, behavioral economics has also been applied to the explanatory analysis of the political process. This paper surveys the current state of the emerging field of "behavioral public choice" and considers the scope for further research.

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“…Several studies confront subjects with a vote between an own monetary payout and a gift to charity. In such a setting, Carter and Guerette (1992) and Fischer (1996) exogenously vary the probability that the individual's choice is decisive. While this has very limited impact on support of the charitable option in the experiment conducted by Carter and Guerette (1992), Fischer (1996) nds that subjects are more likely to support charity if they anticipate not to aect the outcome.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In such a setting, Carter and Guerette (1992) and Fischer (1996) exogenously vary the probability that the individual's choice is decisive. While this has very limited impact on support of the charitable option in the experiment conducted by Carter and Guerette (1992), Fischer (1996) nds that subjects are more likely to support charity if they anticipate not to aect the outcome. Tyran (2004) allows subjects who voted against the proposal to withhold their contribution to charity when the proposal passes.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Pocketbook Voting, Social Preferences, and Expressive Motives in Referenda

2017

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We develop and test a theory of voting and turnout decisions that integrates self-interest, social preferences, and expressive motives. Our model implies that if pocketbook benets are relevant, voters either perceive their impact on the outcome to be non-negligible, or expressive motivations do not play a role in the decision on how to vote. Conversely, if own pocketbook benets do not explain voting, then voting is expressive. If the perceived probability of being pivotal is non-negligible, social preferences and expressive concerns are observationally equivalent. Our empirical analysis studies collective choices which are analogous to decisions on local public goods. We consider referenda among university students on whether to collectively purchase deeply discounted at rate tickets for public transportation and cultural amenities. Individual usage data allow quantifying the monetary benets associated with each ticket.As voters had precise information on the individual costs and benets, our setting comprises a real-world laboratory of direct democracy. We nd that monetary benets strongly inuence participation and voting. However, social or expressive motives, such as stated altruism, environmental concerns, and paternalism, are decisive for a signicant minority. Our results rule out purely expressive voting and imply that a substantial share of the electorate perceived their impact on the outcome to be non-negligible.

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An experimental study of expressive voting

Cited by 87 publications

References 9 publications

Electoral participation and communicative voting in Europe

Electoral participation and communicative voting in Europe

Behavioral Public Choice: A Survey

Pocketbook Voting, Social Preferences, and Expressive Motives in Referenda

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