Does uncertainty lead to sincerity? Simple and complex voting mechanisms

Miguel Ángel Ballester, P. Rey-Biel

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We ask whether the absence of information about other voters' preferences allows optimal voting to be interpreted as sincere.We start by classifying voting mechanisms as simple and complex according to the number of message types voters can use to elect alternatives. We show that while in simple voting mechanisms the elimination of information about other voters' preferences allows optimal voting to be interpreted as sincere, this is no longer always true for complex ones. In complex voting mechanisms, voters' optimal strategy may vary with the size of the electorate. Therefore, in order to interpret optimal voting as sincere for complex voting mechanisms, we describe the optimal voting strategy when voters not only have no information but also have no pivotal power, i.e., as the size of the electorate tends to infinity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)477-494
Number of pages18
JournalSocial Choice and Welfare
Volume33
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes

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