TY - JOUR
T1 - Politics with(out) Coase
AU - Luppi, Barbara
AU - Parisi, Francesco
PY - 2012/7
Y1 - 2012/7
N2 - Political markets may be curative of political externalities, yet they are often unviable due to the presence of bargaining externalities. In this paper, we study the extent to which the choice of voting dimensions may affect the viability of Coasian bargaining in a political context. The results suggest that bargaining in a multi-dimensional policy space, although desirable in an ideal world of zero-transaction costs, is almost unavoidably affected by bargaining externalities. Disaggregating the policy choices and voting in a one-dimensional policy space can reduce bargaining externalities and lead to median voter outcomes. Bargaining by a limited number of players in a median voter situation can achieve a social first-best. We show the equivalence between the outcomes of multiple independent voting in one-dimensional space and the hypothetical outcome of Coasian bargaining in a multi-dimensional policy space.
AB - Political markets may be curative of political externalities, yet they are often unviable due to the presence of bargaining externalities. In this paper, we study the extent to which the choice of voting dimensions may affect the viability of Coasian bargaining in a political context. The results suggest that bargaining in a multi-dimensional policy space, although desirable in an ideal world of zero-transaction costs, is almost unavoidably affected by bargaining externalities. Disaggregating the policy choices and voting in a one-dimensional policy space can reduce bargaining externalities and lead to median voter outcomes. Bargaining by a limited number of players in a median voter situation can achieve a social first-best. We show the equivalence between the outcomes of multiple independent voting in one-dimensional space and the hypothetical outcome of Coasian bargaining in a multi-dimensional policy space.
KW - Bargaining externalities
KW - Cyclicality
KW - Political Coase theorem
KW - Political externalities
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U2 - 10.1007/s12232-012-0153-1
DO - 10.1007/s12232-012-0153-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84864132626
SN - 1865-1704
VL - 59
SP - 175
EP - 187
JO - International Review of Economics
JF - International Review of Economics
IS - 2
ER -