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Information Revelation and Pandering in Elections

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  • Navin Kartik
  • Francesco Squintani
  • Katrin Tinn

Abstract

Do elections efficiently aggregate politicians' policy-relevant private information? This paper argues that politicians' office motivation is an obstacle. In a two-candidate Hotelling-Downs model in which each candidate has socially-valuable policy information, we establish that equilibrium welfare is at best what can be obtained by disregarding one politician's information. We also find that for canonical information structures, politicians have an incentive to ``anti-pander'', i.e., to overreact to their information. Some degree of pandering -- underreacting to information -- would be socially beneficial.

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  • Navin Kartik & Francesco Squintani & Katrin Tinn, 2024. "Information Revelation and Pandering in Elections," Papers 2406.17084, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2406.17084
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    1. Edward L. Glaeser & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2005. "Strategic Extremism: Why Republicans and Democrats Divide on Religious Values," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1283-1330.
    2. Timothy Besley & Stephen Coate, 1997. "An Economic Model of Representative Democracy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 85-114.
    3. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    4. Martinelli, Cesar, 2001. "Elections with Privately Informed Parties and Voters," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 108(1-2), pages 147-167, July.
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