Pressure Groups and Political Advertising: How Uninformed Voters Can Use Strategic Rules of Thumb
UC Santa Cruz Economics Working Paper No. 589
36 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2005
Date Written: February 2005
Abstract
This paper shows how uninformed but rational voters can respond intelligently to political advertising.
The paper models a situation where a candidate must rely on a pressure group for financing political advertising. The pressure group uses its power over the purse to influence the position chosen by the candidate. Nevertheless, when uninformed voters use a strategic rule of thumb, pressure-group contributions always move the outcome of the election closer to the median voter. By using such a rule of thumb, when there is advertising, uninformed voters can have the same influence on the election as informed voters.
Keywords: Candidates, pressure groups, elections, uninformed voters
JEL Classification: D7
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Political Institutions and Policy Choices: Evidence from the United States
By Timothy J. Besley and Anne Case
-
Is There a Politically Optimal Level of Judicial Independence?
-
How Elections Matter: Theory and Evidence from Environmental Policy
By John A. List and Daniel M. Sturm
-
How Elections Matter: Theory and Evidence from Environmental Policy
By John A. List and Daniel M. Sturm
-
Issue Unbundling Via Citizens' Initiatives
By Timothy J. Besley and Stephen Coate
-
Issue Unbundling Via Citizens' Initiatives
By Timothy J. Besley and Stephen Coate
-
Political Competition and Economic Performance: Theory and Evidence from the United States
By Timothy J. Besley, Torsten Persson, ...
-
Political Competition and Economic Performance: Theory and Evidence from the United States
By Timothy J. Besley, Torsten Persson, ...
-
Political Competition and Economic Performance: Theory and Evidence from the United States
By Timothy J. Besley, Torsten Persson, ...
-
Political Competition with Campaign Contributions and Informative Advertising