|
on Collective Decision-Making |
| By: | Hughes, Niall |
| Abstract: | It is commonly thought that in an election with two parties there can be no strategic voting - voters simply vote for their preferred candidate. In this paper, I show that strategic voting comes to the fore in legislative elections with multiple policy dimensions. In sharp contrast to single-district elections, the intensity of a voter’s preference on each dimension is irrelevant for her voting decision. Instead, she votes solely based on the dimension which is most likely to be pivotal in the legislature. Anticipating this behaviour, candidates put forward a different set of policies than they would in a single-district election. For large elections I show that the implemented policy bundle: (a) is uniquely pinned down by voter preferences, (b) is preferred by a majority of districts on each dimension, (c) is a Condorcet winner, if one exists. These properties are not guaranteed in a single-district election. Furthermore, I show that (i) parliamentary systems generate superior policies to presidential systems and (ii) voter polarisation affects outcomes in single-district elections but not legislative elections. |
| Keywords: | Strategic Voting, Legislative Elections, Multi-dimensional Policy, Pivotal Voting, Plurality Rule, Large Elections |
| JEL: | C72 D72 D78 |
| Date: | 2020–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100363&r=all |
| By: | Niklas Potrafke (University of Munich); Marcus Rösch (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Heinrich Ursprung (University of Konstanz) |
| Abstract: | We ask three questions. First, do election systems differ in how they translate physical attractiveness of candidates into electoral success? Second, do political parties strategically exploit the “beauty premium” when deciding on which candidates to nominate, and, third, do elected MPs use their beauty premium to reap some independence from their party? Using the German election system that combines first-past-the-post election with party-list proportional representation, our results show that plurality elections provide more scope for translating physical attractiveness into electoral success than proportional representation. Whether political parties strategically use the beauty premium to optimize their electoral objectives is less clear. Physically attractive MPs, however, allow themselves to dissent more often, i.e. they vote more often against the party line than their less attractive peers. |
| Keywords: | attractiveness of politicians, safe district, party strategies, electoral success, electoral system |
| JEL: | J70 D72 J45 |
| Date: | 2020–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20200026&r=all |
| By: | J. Stephen Ferris (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Bharatee Bhusana Dash (Xavier School of Economics, Xavier University) |
| Abstract: | What accounts for the large and ever-changing number of political parties that contest Indian state elections? In this paper we examine this question by testing an equilibrium model of political party numbers where the number of parties depend on the average size of state constituencies, voter turnout, the heterogeneity of the state’s electorate, constitutional and legislative rules that directly affect party numbers and per capita state incomes while controlling for a series of discrete political events that have influenced political parties. The analysis compares this model with one explaining the effective number of parties (ENP) and extends the analysis to consider the effect of political factors such as the openness and competitiveness of the upcoming election on the timing of the decision of political parties to enter and exit (and thus the rate of political party turnover). The analysis is further extended by allowing the level of development to interact with their party structures. |
| Keywords: | number of political parties; Indian states; entry and exit of political partie; ENP; fixed effects poisson panel estimation |
| JEL: | D72 D73 P16 H70 |
| Date: | 2020–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:20-06&r=all |
| By: | Georgios Efthyvoulou; Pantelis Kammas; Vassilis Sarantides |
| Abstract: | The electoral law of 31 May 1952 extended the voting rights to all adult women in Greece. This paper examines the impact of womenÕs enfranchisement on party vote shares by employing a unique dataset of 385 communities located in seven prefectures in Greece where by-elections took place in 1953 and 1954 (for strictly exogenous reasons). To estimate causal effects, we exploit the observed heterogeneity in the proportion of women in the electorate across communities as the identifying source of variation, and employ a difference-in-differences design that holds unobserved local characteristics fixed. Our results provide strong evidence in favour of the Òtraditional gender voting gapÓ (women voting more conservatively compared to men) in the urban prefecture of Thessaloniki, and no evidence of gender voting differences in the remaining (six) predominantly rural prefectures of our sample. Our results also reveal that the existence of a gender voting gap is highly conditional upon the proportion of economically inactive women; that is, women tend to vote for right parties when they are outside of the labour force. Interestingly, when we account for this conditionality, a suffrage-induced pro-right shift can also be observed in communities outside Thessaloniki. Building on the economic bargaining models of the family, we argue that, in an economic environment characterized by limited demand for female labour force participation, women support more vigorously the sanctity and the strength of family values and tend to vote more conservatively compared to men. |
| Keywords: | womenÕs suffrage; political preferences; womenÕs labour market participation |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:146&r=all |
| By: | Maria Arvaniti (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Wolfgang Habla (Department of Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, L7, 1, 68161 Mannheim, Germany) |
| Abstract: | International carbon markets are frequently propagated as an efficient instrument for reducing CO2 emissions. We argue that such markets, despite their desirable efficiency properties, might not be in the best interest of governments who are guided by strategic considerations in negotiations. We identify the circumstances under which governments benefit or are harmed by cooperation in the form of an international market. Our results challenge the conventional wisdom that an international market is most beneficial for participating countries when they have vastly diverging marginal abatement costs; rather, it may be more promising to negotiate agreements with non-tradable emissions caps. |
| Keywords: | cooperative climate policy, political economy, emissions trading, linking of permit markets, strategic delegation, strategic voting |
| JEL: | D72 H23 H41 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:20-335&r=all |
| By: | Leopoldo Fergusson, Horacio Larreguy y Juan Felipe Riañostate capacity, political competition, land allocation; Horacio Larreguy; Juan Felipe Riaño |
| Abstract: | Abstract We develop a model of the politics of state capacity building undertaken by incumbent parties that have a comparative advantage in clientelism rather than in public goods provision. The model predicts that, when challenged by opponents, clientelistic incumbents have the incentive to prevent investments in state capacity. We provide empirical support for the model’s implications by studying policy decisions by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that affected local state capacity across Mexican municipalities and over time. Our difference-in-differences and instrumental variable identification strategies exploit a national shock that threatened the Mexican government’s hegemony in the early 1960s. The intensity of this shock, which varied across municipalities, was partly explained by severe droughts that occurred during the 1950s. |
| Keywords: | state capacity, political competition, land allocation |
| JEL: | D72 D73 Q15 |
| Date: | 2020–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:018181&r=all |
| By: | Dotti, Valerio |
| Abstract: | I propose a model of legislative bargaining among endogenous political parties over multiple policy dimensions. I provide a characterization of (i) the partition of the legislature into parties, (ii) the policy reforms that parties propose (if any), and (iii) the policy outcome attained from these proposals. I show that - depending on the position of the status quo - either (1) the presence of parties does not affect the policy outcome and a median voter theorem holds, or (2) a party representing legislators with extreme and opposite political views - i.e., a coalition of extremes - can successfully block reforms that would be feasible if parties did not exist. Lastly, I show that the extent to which the existence of parties can increase the set of possible policy reforms is severely limited or null. |
| Keywords: | Multidimensional policy space, Political parties, Policy reforms |
| JEL: | C71 D72 |
| Date: | 2019–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100227&r=all |
| By: | Runsten, Philip (Dept. of Management and Organization); Werr, Andreas (Dept. of Management and Organization) |
| Abstract: | Teams, as collectives of individuals, sharing a purpose and goals, and bringing different competences and experiences to the process of working together, will play an increasingly critical role as specialization increases in organizations. In these situations, the teams’ ability of local adaptive knowledge integration can help organizations cope with increasing challenges of complexity. This report develops a definition of team-level collective intelligence and argues that it varies with the team’s ability to integrate their individual knowledge. Based on an integration of the team learning and transactive memory systems literatures, a model of knowledge integration is developed with the team processes of Reflection and Integration interacting with the team emergent states of Representation and Relation. The model is tested on a sample of 50 teams from 22 international and Swedish private and public organizations. All variables of the team capabilities Reflection, Integration, Representation and Relation were significantly related to each other. All variables were also significantly related to team performance, except Expertise location as part of Representation. The Relation variable Psychological safety, and the Representation variables Clear and Whole task were found to mediate the relation of all other variables to team performance. This indicates that integration and reflection behavior of team members relate to performance by 1) developing an advanced, shared and meaningful representation and 2) developing relations that ensure the team of its member’s deeper residing thoughts and ideas. |
| Keywords: | teams; collective intelligence; team intelligence; group intelligence; learning; psychological safety; transactive memory system; collective mind; heedful interrelating |
| JEL: | M50 M54 M59 |
| Date: | 2020–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastma:2020_002&r=all |
| By: | Nils D. Steiner (Johannes Gutenberg University); Philipp Harms (Johannes Gutenberg University) |
| Abstract: | Is opposition to globalization rooted in economic transformations caused by international trade? To contribute to the ongoing debate on this question, we propose a “nationalist backlash” thesis and test it with panel data on individual political attitudes. We argue that individuals living in regions suffering from stronger import competition develop more nationalist attitudes as part of a broad counter-reaction to globalization. Our analysis of data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) finds that respondents from regions exposed to higher imports from low-wage countries – in particular, China – turn more critical of EU membership and international cooperation. Moreover, on an affective level, their nationalist sentiments increase. In contrast, there is no evidence that regional trade shocks cause economic policy orientations to shift leftwards. We thus document a direct individual-level response to import shocks in the form of rising nationalist attitudes that helps to explain these shocks’ aggregate electoral consequences in terms of increased vote shares for the radical right. |
| Keywords: | China shock; globalization; import competition; international trade; nationalism; political attitudes; EU support; panel data. |
| JEL: | C90 D01 D90 D91 |
| Date: | 2020–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2014&r=all |
| By: | Ben Weidmann; David J. Deming |
| Abstract: | Most jobs require teamwork. Are some people good team players? In this paper we design and test a new method for identifying individual contributions to group performance. We randomly assign people to multiple teams and predict team performance based on previously assessed individual skills. Some people consistently cause their group to exceed its predicted performance. We call these individuals “team players”. Team players score significantly higher on a well-established measure of social intelligence, but do not differ across a variety of other dimensions, including IQ, personality, education and gender. Social skills – defined as a single latent factor that combines social intelligence scores with the team player effect – improve group performance about as much as IQ. We find suggestive evidence that team players increase effort among teammates. |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27071&r=all |
| By: | Dolata, Ulrich |
| Abstract: | The leading Internet groups, with their extensively networked platforms, have become the key players in the design and regulatory framing of the Internet in the course of the 2010s. This paper examines the mechanisms by which they fulfil their role as structurebuilding, rule-making and action-coordinating core actors in today's Web. The focus is on two essential regulatory areas: on the one hand, the private-sector organization and regulation of markets, in which they themselves, as platform operators, coordinate market processes and determine the conditions of competition; on the other hand, the tech- nically mediated structuring and curation of social relationships and social behavior, through which the platform operators assume far-reaching social ordering and regulatory functions. The few large platforms that today enable and coordinate large parts of private and public life on the Internet can - according to the thesis of this article - be understood as differentiated societal structures with a distinct institutional basis, which the platform operators shape and control to a considerable extent by means of their own rules, regulations and coordination bodies-up to the performance of quasi-sovereign tasks by the companies, which were previously reserved for state authorities and have so far largely been able to elude democratic legitimation and control. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:stusoi:202002&r=all |