Ekonomia "ludowa": Jak ekonomia behawioralna może pomóc w zrozumieniu decyzji wyborczych
[Folk economics: How behavioral economics can enhance our understanding of voter behavior]

Ivo Bischoff (Institute of Economics, Universität Kassel, Germany)

 
For a long time, economists have assumed that voters are (poorly informed) utility 
maximizers choosing the policy platform that promises the highest level of utility. 
Behavioral economics shows that this view is drastically oversimplified. The first part of 
my talk will review selected strands of literature on voter behavior from experimental 
economics as well economic psychology. The main focus rests on important empirical 
regularities in voter behavior that cannot be explained by the traditional model of 
economic voting. In the second part of my talk, I will present an experimental study on 
voter behavior in the context of redistributional policies. In addition, I will present 
preliminary results from a series of survey experiments we are currently conducting to 
learn more about party competition and the role of "political brands".