Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/221363 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
1992
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 1006
Publisher: 
Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Evanston, IL
Abstract: 
This paper introduces specialized elections. A specialized election randomly assigns each voter to one election, freeing her of voting responsibilities in other elections. By reducing voters' responsibilities, specialized elections encourage more information acquisition. Specialized elections also make campaigning less costly. A shortcoming of specialized elections is the increase in outcome variance resulting from the sampling effect. Whether or not specialized elections improve democratic outcomes hinges upon the tradeoff between more informed voters and greater outcome variance. Sufficient conditions are derived for the increase in information to generate an outcome nearer to that which would be chosen by a fully informed electorate.
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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