Sudipta Sarangi

Sudipta Sarangi, Professor, Virginia Tech University.

Titre : An Experimental Investigation of Electoral College Contests

Résumé: The Electoral College system used to elect the President of the United States is an example of a multi-battle contest with complementarities.  Due to heterogeneity in the value of the different state level sub-contests, many different combinations of state victories can lead to an overall victory which impacts contestant strategy.  This paper develops theoretical predictions for a simplified four state Electoral College map when states are awarded via a lottery success function and tests those predictions using controlled laboratory experiments. While behavior at the aggregate level is closer to theory, individual level predictions are quite different suggesting that agents follow simpler strategies in such contests.