Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Is it rational to vote?

So I wanted to write up a quick little analysis of why people go out and vote depending on their perceived impact of the election, their affinity for voting and the costs incurred by spending the time to do so. The exercise got a little lengthy, but I had fun with it nonetheless. It assumes an election between two candidates and no other questions on the ballot.

The document is embedded below (it's only 4 pages, so suck it up), and comments are always welcome!

As a follow-up: Is voting the only way to participate in our government? Is it the most effective way?


Vote

3 comments:

jec said...

Cool read! Should that be a > sign on page 3 following "Vote if..." ? You have two < signs.

Robert Fisher said...

ah, right you are!

Josh said...

If a rational person does not vote, then they are acting irrationally! Interesting analysis nonetheless, perhaps in about 20 years it will be time to do one with 3 parties involved...

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