Voter Turnout and Preference Aggregation

We study how voter turnout affects the aggregation of preferences in elections. Under voluntary voting, election outcomes disproportionately aggregate the preferences of voters with low voting cost and high preference intensity. We show identification of the correlation structure among preferences, costs, and perceptions of voting efficacy, and explore how the correlation affects preference aggregation. Using 2004 US presidential election data, we find that young, low-income, less-educated, and minority voters are underrepresented. All of these groups tend to prefer Democrats, except for the less educated. Democrats would have won the majority of the electoral votes if all eligible voters had turned out. (JEL D12, D72)

Co-production or DIY: an analytical model of consumer choice and social preferences

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how consumers choose among three different options offered by a firm in a monopolistic setting, namely, to buy a standard product with a non-customizable design, to ask the firm to customize a product using the consumer’s ideal design or to do the entire design task by themselves. The authors also investigate how social preference intensity and the possibility of reselling a product influence a consumer’s decision. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop an analytical (game theoretical) consumer choice framework and incorporate a psychological factor into the model. The authors also empirically validate the analytical findings using simulations. Findings The authors find that as social preference intensity increases, the number of co-producers can either decrease or increase. The authors offer a closed-form solution and interval graphs showing that when the setup price is large (small), the proportion of the market that chooses to do-it-yourself (DIY) is large (small) and an increase in social preference intensity leads to a decrease (increase) in co-production. Originality/value This is the first paper to incorporate a social factor into an economic model in a consumer behavior setting. It is also the first paper to explain how customers’ preferences among possible options, such as DIY (without the firm’s help), co-production (with the firm’s help) and a standard product might change while considering other people’s preferences, as well as given associated costs.

Optimal Majority Rule in Referenda

Adopting the group turnout model of Herrera and Mattozzi, J. Eur. Econ. Assoc. 2010, 8, 838–871, we investigate direct democracy with supermajority rule and different preference intensities for two sides of a referendum: Reform versus status quo. Two parties spend money and effort to mobilize their voters. We characterize the set of pure strategy Nash equilibria. We investigate the optimal majority rule that maximizes voters’ welfare. Using an example, we show that the relationship between the optimal majority rule and the preference intensity is not monotonic—the optimal majority rule is initially decreasing and then increasing in the preference intensity of the status quo side. We also show that when the preference intensity of the status quo side is higher, the easiness to mobilize voters on the status quo side is lower, or the payoff that the reform party receives is higher, the optimal majority rule is more likely to be supermajority.

Mobile Personalized Service Recommender Model Based on Sentiment Analysis and Privacy Concern

The existing mobile personalized service (MPS) gives little consideration to users’ privacy. In order to address this issue and some other shortcomings, the paper proposes a MPS recommender model for item recommendation based on sentiment analysis and privacy concern. First, the paper puts forward sentiment analysis algorithm based on sentiment vocabulary ontology and then clusters the users based on sentiment tendency. Second, the paper proposes a measurement algorithm, which integrates personality traits with privacy preference intensity, and then clusters the users based on personality traits. Third, this paper achieves a hybrid collaborative filtering recommendation by combining sentiment analysis with privacy concern. Experiments show that this model can effectively solve the problem of MPS data sparseness and cold start. More importantly, a combination of subjective privacy concern and objective recommendation technology can reduce the influence of users’ privacy concerns on their acceptance of MPS.

Comparing Consumer Preferences for Livestock Production Process Attributes Across Products, Species, and Modeling Methods

Consumer preferences for four livestock products were investigated to determine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for livestock production process attributes. We use an inferred method of attribute nonattendance (ANA) using the coefficient of variation on individual specific parameter estimates to assess the variability of preference intensity for various product characteristics. We find that accounting for ANA did not significantly impact mean estimates of WT P. Implications of our findings on the reliability of existing work in the area of consumer preferences for animal welfare attributes are discussed.