November 15, 2017

Benevolence on the Ballot

People vote based on more than self-interest.

People vote based on two factors: their opinions on what is best for society and how informed they are. In a new paper in the November issue of the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, author Joseph McMurray shows how this portrayal of voters is able to explain much of the strange behavior we see at the ballot box — more so than models of voters acting on self-interest alone.