This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. March 2004
  5. Costly Voting

Costly Voting

  • Tilman Borgers
American Economic Review
vol. 94, no. 1, March 2004
(pp. 57-66)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

What are good voting rules if voting is costly? We analyze this question for the case that an electorate chooses among two alternatives. In a symmetric private value model of voting we show that majority voting with voluntary participation Paretodominates majority voting with compulsory participation as well as random decision-making.

Citation

Borgers, Tilman. 2004. "Costly Voting." American Economic Review, 94 (1): 57-66. DOI: 10.1257/000282804322970706

JEL Classification

  • D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior