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Honesty and Self-Selection into Cheap Talk

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  • Sebastian Fehrler
  • Urs Fischbacher
  • Maik T Schneider

Abstract

In many situations, people can lie strategically, for their own benefit. Since individuals differ with respect to their willingness to lie, the credibility of statements will crucially depend on who self-selects into such cheap-talk situations. We study this process in a two-stage political competition setting. At the entry stage, potential candidates compete in a contest to become their party’s candidate in an election. At the election stage, the nominated candidates campaign by making promises to voters. Confirming the model’s key prediction, we find in our experiment that dishonest people over-proportionally self-select into the political race and thereby lower voters’ welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Fehrler & Urs Fischbacher & Maik T Schneider, 2020. "Honesty and Self-Selection into Cheap Talk," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(632), pages 2468-2496.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:130:y:2020:i:632:p:2468-2496.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueaa028
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    Cited by:

    1. Lang, Matthias & Schudy, Simeon, 2023. "(Dis)honesty and the value of transparency for campaign promises," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Leib, Margarita & Köbis, Nils & Rilke, Rainer Michael & Hagens, Marloes & Irlenbusch, Bernd, 2023. "Corrupted by Algorithms? How AI-Generated and Human-Written Advice Shape (Dis)Honesty," IZA Discussion Papers 16293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Marco A. Haan & Sander Onderstal & Yohanes E. Riyanto, 2024. "Punching above One’s Weight–On Overcommitment in Election Campaigns," De Economist, Springer, vol. 172(2), pages 121-139, June.
    4. Rilke, Rainer Michael & Danilov, Anastasia & Weisel, Ori & Shalvi, Shaul & Irlenbusch, Bernd, 2021. "When leading by example leads to less corrupt collaboration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 288-306.
    5. Čellárová, Katarína & Staněk, Rostislav, 2024. "Contest and resource allocation: An experimental analysis of entitlement and self-selection effects," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Mourelatos, Evangelos & Krimpas, George & Giotopoulos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Sexual identity and Gender Gap in Leadership. A political intention experiment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1187, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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