Pre-election polls as strategic coordination devices

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2012
Volume: 84
Issue: 2
Pages: 681-700

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

In the unique attainable equilibrium of a voting model with one minority candidate and two similarly appealing majority candidates, majority voters are unable to coordinate their support and the minority candidate (Condorcet loser) is elected. Suppose a random sample of voters is asked about their preferences prior to the election. We show that there always exists an equilibrium of this two stage game in which all poll participants are truthful, resulting in a high likelihood of a majority candidate winning the election. This equilibrium is unique if the sample size of the poll is Poisson distributed or fixed and odd.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:84:y:2012:i:2:p:681-700
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25