American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
A Group Rule-Utilitarian Approach to Voter Turnout: Theory and Evidence
American Economic Review
vol. 94,
no. 5, December 2004
(pp. 1476–1504)
Abstract
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.Citation
Coate, Stephen, and Michael Conlin. 2004. "A Group Rule-Utilitarian Approach to Voter Turnout: Theory and Evidence." American Economic Review, 94 (5): 1476–1504. DOI: 10.1257/0002828043052231Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior