A Model of Electoral Competition with Interest Groups

Peter Murrell, Dennis C. Mueller and Peter Coughlin, Economics Letters 32(4), 307-311, April .

Abstract:

This letter specifies and analyzes a model of electoral competition with interest groups. The assumptions used in the model are drawn from the existing literature. We (i) show that certain assumptions that have been used in empirical analyses of voting provide a sufficient condition for the existence of an electoral equilibrium, and (ii) characterize the equilibrium strategies. Embodied in the characterization is a set of parameters that can be said to measure the electoral strengths of the interest groups. We also state the appropriate definition of the Pareto relation for our model and note that each of the equilibrium strategies is Pareto optimal.

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