Gerrymandering in the laboratory

Gerrymandering, the drawing of electoral boundaries for political advantage, is a controversial political topic. Previous theoretical work has treated gerrymandering as a one‐stage strategic game against nature, but this paper treats drawing districts as the first stage in a two stage game where par...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Southern economic journal 2023-07, Vol.90 (1), p.182-213
Main Authors: An, SunAh, Anderson, Michael, Deck, Cary
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
contests
Districts
electioneering
Elections
Expenditures
gerrymandering
Ignorance
Laboratories
laboratory experiment
Political ideologies
Redistricting
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Gerrymandering, the drawing of electoral boundaries for political advantage, is a controversial political topic. Previous theoretical work has treated gerrymandering as a one‐stage strategic game against nature, but this paper treats drawing districts as the first stage in a two stage game where parties subsequently compete for undecided voters within districts. In a laboratory experiment, subjects overwhelmingly engage in gerrymandering, which maximizes their probability of winning a majority of the districts and maximizes their expected payoff. However, the subjects self‐report being opposed to the practice in politics regardless of their own political ideology. When forced to draw the electoral map behind a veil of ignorance, the subjects indicate a clear preference for symmetric maps although not the map with the highest theoretical expected payoff. Additionally, while subjects overspend in second stage competition, average spending is similar across electoral maps.
ISSN:0038-4038
2325-8012
DOI:10.1002/soej.12638