A Group Rule: Utilitarian Approach to Voter Turnout: Theory and Evidence

This paper explores a group rule-utilitarian approach to understanding voter turnout, inspired by the theoretical work of John C. Harsanyi (1980) and Timothy J. Feddersen and Alvaro Sandroni (2002). It develops a model based on this approach and studies its performance in explaining turnout in Texas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American economic review 2004-12, Vol.94 (5), p.1476-1504
Main Authors: Coate, Stephen, Conlin, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcoholic beverages
Censuses
Comparative analysis
Economics
Jurisdiction
Local elections
Political economy
Population characteristics
Population policy
Referendums
Regression analysis
Studies
Voter behavior
Voter turnout
Voters
Voting
Voting behaviour
Voting precincts
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Summary:This paper explores a group rule-utilitarian approach to understanding voter turnout, inspired by the theoretical work of John C. Harsanyi (1980) and Timothy J. Feddersen and Alvaro Sandroni (2002). It develops a model based on this approach and studies its performance in explaining turnout in Texas liquor referenda. The results are encouraging: the comparative static predictions of the model are broadly consistent with the data, and a structurally estimated version of the model yields reasonable coefficient estimates and fits the data well. The structurally estimated model also outperforms a simple expressive voting model.
ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981
DOI:10.1257/0002828043052231