BICEPS/SSE Riga Research Seminar: Counting on My Vote Not Counting: Expressive Voting in Committees

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar, which will take place on Thursday, June 6 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“Counting on My Vote Not Counting: Expressive Voting in Committees” by Boris Ginzburg (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), co-authored with José-Alberto Guerra (Universidad de los Andes) and Warn Nuarpear Lekfuangfu (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok).

Abstract
How do voting institutions affect incentives of committees to vote expressively? We model the problem of a committee, whose members have different depths of reasoning, that decides whether to approve an ethical proposal. Members who vote for the proposal receive expressive utility, but all members pay a cost if the proposal is passed. The model suggests that institutional features that reduce the probability of a member being pivotal – such as larger committee size, or a more restrictive majority rule – increase the expected share of votes in favour of the ethical alternative. A laboratory experiment with a charitable donation framing demonstrates comparative statics that are in line with these results. We also structurally estimate the distribution of expressive preferences across individuals, and find that a high proportion of subjects are strategically naive.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.