Voting when money and morals conflict: an experimental test of expressive voting

Autor(en)

Jean-Robert Tyran

Abstrakt

Moral considerations may matter much in voting because the costs of expressing support for a morally worthy cause may be low in a referendum. These costs depend on whether a voter expects to affect the outcome of the referendum. To test the low-cost theory of expressive voting, we experimentally investigate a proposal to tax everyone and to donate tax revenues. The analysis of expectations and voting decisions shows that the low-cost theory fails to explain voting decisions. Instead, we find that voters tend to approve of the proposal if they expect others to approve, too.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Wiener Zentrum für Experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung

Journal

Journal of Public Economics

Band

88

Seiten

1645–1664

Anzahl der Seiten

20

ISSN

0047-2727

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(03)00016-1

Publikationsdatum

2004

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

502045 Verhaltensökonomie, 502027 Politische Ökonomie

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/voting-when-money-and-morals-conflict-an-experimental-test-of-expressive-voting(5de4962d-a3ee-43b2-b914-85c7cb70de5e).html