eprintid: 35946
rev_number: 18
eprint_status: archive
userid: 3114
dir: disk0/00/03/59/46
datestamp: 2025-01-21 13:37:09
lastmod: 2025-01-23 17:42:24
status_changed: 2025-01-21 13:37:09
type: workingPaper
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Charroin, Lisa
creators_name: Vanberg, Christoph
title: Logrolling affects the relative performance of alternative q-majority rules
subjects: ddc-330
divisions: i-181000
keywords: logrolling, vote trading, majority rule, unanimity rule, experiment
abstract: We consider a committee facing binary decisions on a number of proposals. If members vote sincerely and payoffs are symmetric in expectation, it can be shown that the simple majority rule is the best q-majority rule in an aggregate or expected payoff sense. We argue that this conclusion changes systematically if the committee faces multiple decisions and members engage in logrolling deals. In a simulation exercise, we find that unanimity rule outperforms majority
rule when the number of proposals considered is large enough. We also conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate whether human subjects engage in logrolling deals and if so which ones. We find that subjects reach some, but not all, of the deals that the experimental situations admit. Deals associated with negative externalities are less likely to arise than others, as are "complex" deals involving many voters or proposals. These results suggest that the impact of logrolling on the relative performance of the decision rules considered may be mitigated by cognitive constraints and other-regarding preferences.
date: 2024
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00035946
schriftenreihe_cluster_id: sr-3
schriftenreihe_order: 0758
ppn_swb: 1915375274
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-359461
language: eng
bibsort: CHARROINLILOGROLLING20241219
full_text_status: public
series: AWI Discussion Paper Series
volume: 0758
place_of_pub: Heidelberg
pages: 47
citation:   Charroin, Lisa ; Vanberg, Christoph  (2024) Logrolling affects the relative performance of alternative q-majority rules.  [Working paper]     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/35946/7/Charroin_Vanberg_Logrolling_dp758_2024.pdf