Abstract
We examine the effects of providing more accurate information to a political decision-maker lobbied by competing interests. We investigate how this bias in the direction of the correct decision affects efficiency, measured (inversely) by both the probability of taking an incorrect decision, and the amount of social waste associated to lobbying activities. We present a benchmark model in which increasing the bias always improves efficiency. However, this result is fragile as slight changes in the contest success function lead to slightly different models in which under either criterion there is no guarantee that more accurate information improves the decision.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Austen-Smith, D., & Banks, J. S. (1996). Information aggregation, rationality and the Condorcet jury theorem. American Political Science Review, 90, 34–45.
Austen-Smith, D., & Wright, J. R. (1992). Competitive lobbying for a legislator’s vote. Social Choice and Welfare, 9, 229–257.
Baye, M. R., Kovenock, D., & de Vries, C. G. (1994). The solution to the Tullock rent-seeking game when R>2: mixed strategy equilibria and mean dissipation rates. Public Choice, 81, 363–380.
Black, D. (1958). The theory of committees and elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clark, D., & Riis, C. (1998). Contest success functions: an extension. Economic Theory, 11, 201–204.
Corchón, L. (2000). The allocative effects of rent-seeking. Journal of Public Economic Theory, 2, 483–491.
Cornes, R., & Hartley, R. (2005). Asymmetric contests with general technologies. Economic Theory, 26, 923–946.
Feddersen, T., & Pesendorfer, W. (1998). Convicting the innocent: the inferiority of unanimous jury verdicts. American Political Science Review, 92, 23–35.
Feddersen, T., & Pesendorfer, W. (1999). Elections, information aggregation, and strategic voting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 9, 10572–10574.
Hirshleifer, J., & Osborne, E. (2001). Truth, effort, and the legal battle. Public Choice, 108, 169–195.
Ladha, K. K. (1992). The Condorcet jury theorem, free speech, and correlated votes. American Journal of Political Science, 36, 617–634.
Ladha, K. K. (1993). Condorcet’s jury theorem in light of de Finetti’s Theorem. Social Choice and Welfare, 10, 69–85.
Leininger, W. (1993). More efficient rent-seeking—a Münchhausen solution. Public Choice, 75, 43–62.
Skaderpas, S. (1996). Contest success functions. Economic Theory, 7, 283–290.
Tullock, G. (1980). Efficient rent seeking. In J. Buchanan, R. Tollison, & G. Tullock (Eds.), Toward a theory of the rentseeking society (pp. 97–112). College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dahm, M., Porteiro, N. Biased contests. Public Choice 136, 55–67 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-008-9278-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-008-9278-x