
Economics Working Papers
Publication Date
3-30-2019
Number
19006
Abstract
The paper studies profile components that cause plurality scores to differ from scores under other positional methods. We focus especially on the differences between plurality tallies and the Borda Count. We show that these profile components consist of an equal number of voters supporting a specific candidate in the first and last places. In particular they have an equal number of voters supporting a specific preference order and its reverse. In light of recent attention on partisanship and political polarization, it is important to have measures of such profiles and an assessment of how much they contribute to positional tallies. The methodological contribution of the paper lies in cutting through the combinatorial complexities that crop up in analysis of rank orders over n-candidates to characterize and measure these profiles.
JEL Classification
D70, D71, D72
Version History
Original Release Date: March 28, 2019
Latest Revision: March 30, 2019
Departments
Department of Economics, Iowa State University
File Format
application/pdf
Length
35 pages
Recommended Citation
Roy, Sunanda; Wu, Kuan Chuen; and Chandra, Abhijit, "The Will of the People: Measuring social divides in multi-dimensional choice settings" (2019). Economics Working Papers: Department of Economics, Iowa State University. 19006.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_workingpapers/69