Abstract

Economists have long been puzzled by the fact that people vote in elections even though their influence on the electoral outcome is infinitesimal and they can 'free ride' on the voting of voters favoring the same candidate. This well-known 'paradox of voting' assumes that people vote as an investment in the electoral outcome. The authors develop a new test of the hypothesis that voting is a form of investment, as opposed to the alternative hypothesis that voting is a form of consumption. Their empirical results suggest that voting is a form of consumption, implying that the paradox of voting may be exaggerated. Copyright 1994 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG

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