Euclidean Revealed Preferences: Testing the Spatial Voting Model

35 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2011

See all articles by Marc Henry

Marc Henry

Pennsylvania State University

Ismael Mourifie

University of Toronto - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 29, 2011

Abstract

In the spatial model of voting, voters choose the candidate closest to them in the ideological space. Recent work by (Degan and Merlo 2009) shows that it is falsifiable on the basis of individual voting data in multiple elections. We show how to tackle the fact that the model only partially identifies the distribution of voting profiles and we give a formal revealed preference test of the spatial voting model in 3 national elections in the US, and strongly reject the spatial model in all cases. We also construct confidence regions for partially identified voter characteristics in an augmented model with unobserved valence dimension, and identify the amount of voter heterogeneity necessary to reconcile the data with spatial preferences.

Keywords: revealed preference, partial identification, elliptic preferences, voting behaviour

JEL Classification: C19, D72

Suggested Citation

Henry, Marc and Mourifie, Ismael, Euclidean Revealed Preferences: Testing the Spatial Voting Model (June 29, 2011). CIRANO - Scientific Publication No. 2011s-49, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1919150 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1919150

Marc Henry (Contact Author)

Pennsylvania State University ( email )

University Park
State College, PA 16802
United States

Ismael Mourifie

University of Toronto - Department of Economics ( email )

150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S3G7
Canada

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