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The Eurovision Song Contest: Voting Rules, Biases and Rationality

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Ginsburgh

    (ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and CORE, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

  • Juan D. Moreno-Ternero

    (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide;)

Abstract

We analyze and evaluate the rules and results at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. We first concentrate on the various voting procedures, and explore several alternatives (inspired by classical contributions in social choice and game theory) that could make a difference for the results. We also discuss other important issues, such as simplicity, contrast effects and whether experts are better judges than tele-voters. Our findings raise the question of whether the voting procedures used by the Eurovision Song Contest authorities are fail-safe. We endorse instead the use of the so-called Shapley voting procedure for judges as well as tele-voters.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Ginsburgh & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2022. "The Eurovision Song Contest: Voting Rules, Biases and Rationality," Working Papers 22.09, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pab:wpaper:22.09
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Bergantiños, Gustavo & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D., 2020. "Broadcasting La Liga," MPRA Paper 104750, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Budzinski, Oliver & Gänßle, Sophia & Weimar, Daniel, 2023. "Disentangling individual biases in jury voting: An empirical analysis of voting behavior in the Eurovision Song Contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 171, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Eurovision Song Contest; Voting; Borda; Shapley Method; Biases;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality

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