The welfare effects of public opinion polls |
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Authors: | Esteban F Klor Eyal Winter |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Economics, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel;(2) Department of Economics and The Center for the Study of Rationality, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel |
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Abstract: | This paper presents an experimental study of the effects of polls on voters’ welfare. The analysis shows that polls have a
different effect on closely divided and lopsided divided electorates. The data show that in closely divided electorates (and
only for these electorates) the provision of information on the voters’ distribution of preferences significantly raises the
participation of subjects supporting the slightly larger team relative to the smaller team. This causes a substantial increase
on the frequency of electoral victories of the larger team. As a consequence, we observe a steep decrease in the welfare of
the members of the smaller team because they vote more often and yet they loose the elections more frequently. Polls are detrimental
to aggregate welfare in closely divided electorates because the decrease in the payoffs of the minority is stronger than the
increase in the payoffs of the majority. In lopsided divided electorates polls don’t have a significant different effect on
the voters’ turnout conditional on their team size. We do observe an increase on the frequency of electoral victories of the
larger team after the provision of information, but this is in part due to smaller teams’ members voting less frequently and
saving the participation costs. As a consequence, while polls have a negative effect on the relative payoffs of the minority
for these electorates as well, they have a positive effect on total welfare. |
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