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Policy Reversals and Electoral Competition with Privately Informed Parties

Author

Listed:
  • Cesar Martinelli

    (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM))

  • Akihiko Matsui

    (University of Tokyo & University of Tsukuba)

Abstract

We develop a spatial model of competition between two policy-motivated parties. Parties know a state of the world which determines which policies are desirable for voters, while voters do not. The announced positions of the parties serve as signals to the voters concerning the parties' private information. In all separating equilibria, when the left-wing party attains power, the policies it implements are to the right of the policies implemented by the right-wing party when it attains power. The intuition behind this result is that when right-wing policies become more attractive, the left party moves toward the right in order to be assured of winning, while the right-wing party stays put in a radical stance.

Suggested Citation

  • Cesar Martinelli & Akihiko Matsui, 2000. "Policy Reversals and Electoral Competition with Privately Informed Parties," Working Papers 0003, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM, revised Jul 2000.
    • Handle: RePEc:cie:wpaper:0003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Kunal Sengupta & Amal Sanyal, 2004. "Delegation in a Cheap-Talk Game: A Voting Example," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 471, Econometric Society.
    3. Müller, Wieland & Spiegel, Yossi & Yehezkel, Yaron, 2009. "Oligopoly limit-pricing in the lab," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 373-393, May.
    4. Bernhardt, Dan & Duggan, John & Squintani, Francesco, 2007. "Electoral competition with privately-informed candidates," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-29, January.
    5. Amal Sanyal & Kunal Sengupta, 2005. "Reputation, Cheap Talk and Delegation," Game Theory and Information 0501001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    7. Hillary Ekisa Nambanga, 2020. "Limit Pricing under Complete Information: A Theoretical Analysis of Mobile network Operators," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 4(12), pages 115-122.
    8. Hillary Ekisa Nambanga & Jianpei Li, 2021. "Threat of Entry, Complete Information and Pricing," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(5), pages 161-182.

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