Dynamic political economy of redistribution policy: the role of education costs

This paper focuses on how education costs affect the political determination of redistribution policy via individual decision making on education. For cases of high costs, there are multiple equilibria: the poor-majority equilibrium featured by the minority of highly educated individuals and a high level of redistribution, and the rich-majority equilibrium featured by the majority of highly educated individuals and a low level of redistribution. For cases of low costs, there is a unique rich-majority equilibrium featured by the majority of highly educated individuals and a high level of redistribution.

Ideology and existence of 50%-majority equilibria in multidimensional spatial voting models

When aggregating individual preferences through the majority rule in an n-dimensional spatial voting model, the `worst-case' scenario is a social choice configuration where no political equilibrium exists unless a super majority rate as high as 1-1/n is adopted. In this paper we assume that a lower d-dimensional (d smaller than n) linear map spans the possible candidates' platforms. These d `ideological' dimensions imply some linkages between the n political issues. We randomize over these linkages and show that there almost surely exists a 50%-majority equilibria in the above worst-case scenario, when n grows to infinity. Moreover the equilibrium is the mean voter. The speed of convergence (toward 50%) of the super majority rate guaranteeing existence of equilibrium is computed for d=1 and 2.

Dynamic Political Economy of Redistribution Policy: The Role of Education Costs

This paper focuses on how education costs affect the political determination of redistribution policy via individual decision-making on education. For cases of high costs, there are multiple equilibria: the high-tax equilibrium featured by the minority of highly educated individuals and a large size of the government, and the low-tax equilibrium featured by the majority of highly educated individuals and a small size of the government. For cases of low costs, there is a unique equilibrium featured by the majority of highly educated individuals and a large size of the government.Markov perfect equilibrium; Dynamic political economy; Redistribution policy; Education costs

Production in Incomplete Markets: Expectations Matter for Political Stability

In the present paper we study voting-based corporate control in a general equilibrium model with incomplete financial markets. Since voting takes place in a multi-dimensional setting, super-majority rules are needed to ensure existence of equilibrium. In a linear-quadratic setup we show that the endogenization of voting weights (given by portfolio holdings) can give rise to - through self-fulfilling expectations - dramatical political instability, i.e. Condorcet cycles of length two even for very high majority rules.incomplete markets; super majority voting; political (in)stability; selfulfilling expectations

Competitive Equilibrium in Markets for Votes

We develop a competitive equilibrium theory of a market for votes. Before voting on a binary issue, individuals may buy and sell their votes with each other. We definne ex ante vote-trading equilibrium, identify weak sufficient conditions for existence, and construct one such equilibrium. We show that this equilibrium must always result in dictatorship and the market generates welfare losses, relative to simple majority voting, if the committee is large enough. We test the theoretical implications by implementing a competitive vote market in the laboratory using a continuous open-book multi-unit double auction

Voting on the Budget Deficit

This paper analyzes a model in which different rational individuals vote over the composition and time profile of public spending. Potential disagreement between current and future majorities generates instability in the social choice function that aggregates individual preferences. In equilibrium a majority of the voters may favor a budget deficit. The size of the deficit under majority rule tends to be larger the greater is the polarization between current and potential future majorities. The paper also shows that the ex-ante efficient equilibrium of this model involves a balanced budget. A balanced budget amendment, however, is not durable under majority rule.

Selfish Bin Covering

In this paper, we address the selfish bin covering problem, which is greatly related both to the bin covering problem, and to the weighted majority game. What we mainly concern is how much the lack of coordination harms the social welfare. Besides the standard PoA and PoS, which are based on Nash equilibrium, we also take into account the strong Nash equilibrium, and several other new equilibria. For each equilibrium, the corresponding PoA and PoS are given, and the problems of computing an arbitrary equilibrium, as well as approximating the best one, are also considered.Comment: 16 page

Production in incomplete markets: Expectations matter for political stability.

In the present paper we study voting-based corporate control in a general equilibrium model with incomplete financial markets. Since voting takes place in a multi-dimensional setting, super-majority rules are needed to ensure existence of equilibrium. In a linear–quadratic setup we show that the endogenization of voting weights (given by portfolio holdings) can give rise to – through self-fulfilling expectations – dramatical political instability, i.e. Condorcet cycles of length two even for very high majority rules.

Voting in Assemblies of Shareholders and Incomplete Markets

An economy with two dates is considered, one state at the first date and a finite number of states at the last date. Shareholders determine production plans by voting — one share, one vote — and at ?-majority stable stock market equilibria, alternative production plans are supported by at most ? × 100 percent of the shareholders. It is shown that a ?-majority stable stock market equilibrium exists if ? = S - J S - J + 1 , where S is the number of states at the last date and J is the number of firms. Moreover, an example shows that ?-majority stable stock market equilibrianeed not exist for smaller ?’s.general equilibrium; incomplete markets; firms, voting

Ideology and existence of 50% majority equilibria in Multidimensional spatial voting Models .

When aggregating individual preferences through the majority rule in an n-dimensional spatial voting model, the ‘worst-case’ scenario is a social choice configuration where no political equilibrium exists unless a super-majority rate as high as 1 — 1/(n+1) is adopted. In this paper we assume that a lower d-dimensional (dideology, mean voter theorem, spatial voting, super majority;