Costly information acquisition . Part I : better to toss a coin ? ∗
نویسنده
چکیده
In a common-values election with two candidates voters receive a signal about which candidate is superior. They can acquire information that improves the precision of the signal. Electors differ in their information acquisition costs. For large electorates a non negligible fraction of voters acquires information, but the quantity of informed voters and the quality of acquired information decline so fast that information aggregation fails to obtain. JEL Classification Numbers: C72, D72, D82.
منابع مشابه
Costly information acquisition. Is it better to toss a coin?
This paper presents a strategic model of common value elections with endogenous information acquisition. It proves that majoritarian elections can fail to aggregate information when voters have heterogeneous skills. Informational inefficiencies can be partially corrected by improving the skills of the electors as the population increases, or by limiting participation to the most competent citiz...
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