Alexei Zakharov Presented the Report on 'Valence influence in electoral competition with rank objectives'

On May 17 a research seminar on political economy took place at HSE. Alexei Zakharov (HSE) spoke on 'Valence influence in  electoral competition with rank objectives'.

Coauthors: Alexander Shapoval (HSE), Shlomo Weber (NES, Southern Methodist University)

Abstract:

In this paper we examine  the effects of valence  in a continuous spatial voting model between two incumbent parties and one potential entrant. All parties  are rank-motivated and are driven by their place in the electoral competition.

 

One of our main results is that a sufficiently wide  valence gap between the incumbents yields  an  equilibrium in which no entry will occur. We also show that an increase in valence shifts the high-valence incumbent party closer to the median voter, while the low-valence incumbent selects a more extreme platform.