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  • September 2018
  • Article
  • Econometrica

Expressive Voting and Its Cost: Evidence from Runoffs with Two or Three Candidates

By: Vincent Pons and Clémence Tricaud
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

In French parliamentary and local elections, candidates ranked first and second in the first round automatically qualify for the second round, while a third candidate qualifies only when selected by more than 12.5 percent of registered citizens. Using a fuzzy RDD around this threshold, we find that the third candidate’s presence substantially increases the share of registered citizens who vote for any candidate and reduces the vote share of the top two candidates. It disproportionately harms the candidate ideologically closest to the third and causes her defeat in one fifth of the races. Additional evidence suggests that these results are driven by voters who value voting expressively over voting strategically for the top-two candidate they dislike the least to ensure her victory; and by third candidates who, absent party-level agreements leading to their dropping out, value the benefits associated with competing in the second round more than influencing its outcome.

Keywords

Expressive Voting; Strategic Voting; Regression Discontinuity Design; French Elections; Voting; Political Elections; France

Citation

Pons, Vincent, and Clémence Tricaud. "Expressive Voting and Its Cost: Evidence from Runoffs with Two or Three Candidates." Econometrica 86, no. 5 (September 2018): 1621–1649.

Supplemental Information

Additional Supplement
Appendix A
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About The Author

Vincent Pons

Business, Government and the International Economy
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More from the Authors
  • Small Campaign Donors By: Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte and Vincent Pons
  • Does Context Outweigh Individual Characteristics in Driving Voting Behavior? Evidence from Relocations within the U.S. By: Enrico Cantoni and Vincent Pons
  • Can a Website Bring Unemployment Down? Experimental Evidence from France By: Aïcha Ben Dhia, Bruno Crépon, Esther Mbih, Louise Paul-Delvaux, Bertille Picard and Vincent Pons
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