This talk is at COMPASS seminar (reciprocal visit after P. Davis talk last year in our seminar)

Speaker: Arkadii Slinko
Title: Proportional Representation and Strategic Voters
Date: Friday 21 May 2010
Time: 12pm
Location: Fale Pacifika Building 273 Rm 104
Abstract: This paper was initially motivated by a desire to explain the behaviour of voters at the New Zealand general election held September 17th, 2005. The New Zealand electoral system is mixed member proportional (MMP). Anecdotal evidence has suggested that some voters voted insincerely even though their doing so could have cost their most preferred party seats. We analyse the election and present two models that account for the behaviour observed in the election. We rigorously investigate opportunities for strategic voting under proportional representation (PR), other than those that emerge due to rounding. This talk is based on the paper “Proportional Representation and Strategic Voters” written jointly with Shaun White which is to appear in Journal of Theoretical Politics.

Slides are available.