Author: Maksymilian Kwiek (University of Southampton)
Abstract:
Simple majority does not reflect the intensity of voters’ preferences.
This paper presents an efficient collective choice mechanism when the
choice is binary and the designer may use non-trasferable punishments
to persuade agents to reveal their private information. The designer
faces a dilemma – a punishment may induce a more correct choice,
but its cost is socially wasteful. The efficient mechanism is a weighted
majority. Weight of each individual is known ex ante and no punishments
applied if preferences are relatively homogenous. Eliciting
types through punishments in order to construct type-specific weights
should occur if preference intensity is relatively heterogeneous, or if
voters preferences represent a larger population.