@article{2da66082902f4d688bfaf25706d210b0,
title = "Is mandatory voting better than voluntary voting?",
abstract = "We investigate the welfare effects of policies that increase voter turnout in costly voting models. In a generalized costly voting model, we show that if the electorate is sufficiently large, then increasing voter turnout is generically efficient. Increasing turnout in small elections is only inefficient if the electorate is evenly divided or if there is already almost complete voter participation. Finally, we argue that the effects underlying our results are robust in a large class of endogenous participation models.",
keywords = "Compulsory voting, Costly voting, Externalities, Mandatory voting",
author = "Stefan Krasa and Polborn, {Mattias K.}",
note = "Funding Information: ✩ Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or any other organization. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: skrasa@uiuc.edu (S. Krasa), polborn@uiuc.edu (M.K. Polborn). 1 Stefan Krasa gratefully acknowledges financial support from National Science Foundation Grant SES-031839. 2 These include most South American countries, as well as Australia and several European and Asian countries. See, for example, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting for a list. 3 All non-voters receive a letter asking them to pay the fine. Instead of paying the fine, non-voters can also provide a written excuse. Thus, the actual cost of non-voting is the minimum over the disutility of paying $15 or writing the letter (see Weiner, 2004 for details). 4 There were a few experiments with mandatory voting laws before 1900 in the US. In 1896, the Supreme Court of Missouri struck down a Kansas City charter provision as unconstitutional that assessed a $2.50 poll tax on every man twenty-one years of age or older who failed to vote in the general city election. See Dean (2003).",
year = "2009",
month = may,
doi = "10.1016/j.geb.2008.05.004",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "66",
pages = "275--291",
journal = "Games and Economic Behavior",
issn = "0899-8256",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "1",
}