Skip to main content
Log in

Pareto efficiency in multiple referendum

  • Published:
Theory and Decision Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We consider situations of multiple referendum: finitely many yes-or-no issues have to be socially assessed from a set of approval ballots, where voters approve as many issues as they want. Each approval ballot is extended to a complete preorder over the set of outcomes by means of a preference extension. We characterize, under a mild richness condition, the largest domain of top-consistent and separable preference extensions for which issue-wise majority voting is Pareto efficient, i.e., always yields out a Pareto-optimal outcome. Top-consistency means that voters’ ballots are their unique most preferred outcome. It appears that the size of this domain becomes negligible relative to the size of the full domain as the number of issues increases.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anscombe G. E. M.: On the frustration of the majority by fulfillment of the majority’s will. Analysis 36, 161–168 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benoît J. P., Kornhauser L. A.: On the separability of assembly preferences. Social Choice and Welfare 16(3), 429–439 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benoît, J. P., & Kornhauser, L. A. (2006). Only dictatorship is efficient or neutral. New York university public law and legal theory working papers, New York

  • Benoît J. P., Kornhauser L. A.: Only dictatorship is efficient. Games and Economic Behavior 70(2), 261–270 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley W. J., Hodge J. K., Kilgour D. M.: Separable discrete preferences. Mathematical Social Sciences 49, 335–353 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brams S., Kilgour D. M., Sanver M. R.: A minimax procedure for electing committees. Public Choice 132(3), 401–420 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brams S., Kilgour D. M., Zwicker W. S.: Voting on referenda: The separability problem and possible solutions. Electoral Studies 16(3), 359–377 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brams S., Kilgour D. M., Zwicker W. S.: The paradox of multiple elections. Social Choice and Welfare 15(2), 211–236 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deb R., Kelsey D.: On constructing a generalized Ostrogorski paradox: necessary and sufficient conditions. Mathematical Social Sciences 14, 161–174 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodge J. K., Schwallier P.: How does separability affect the desirability of referendum election outcomes?. Theory and Decision 61(3), 251–276 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly J. S.: The ostrogorski paradox. Social Choice and Welfare 6(1), 71–76 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lacy D., Niou E. M. S.: A problem with referendums. Journal of Theoretical Politics 12(1), 5–32 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laffond G., Lainé J.: Single-switch preferences and the ostrogorski paradox. Mathematical Social Sciences 52(1), 49–66 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laffond G., Lainé J.: Condorcet choice and the ostrogorski paradox. Social Choice and Welfare 32(2), 317–333 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laffond G., & Lainé J. (2011). Searching for a compromise in multiple referendum, Group Decision and Negotiation. doi:10.1007/s10726-010-9226-2 (forthcoming).

  • Lang, J., & Xia, J. (2009). A dichotomy theorem on the existence of efficient or neutral sequential voting correspondences. Proceedings of the Twenty-First International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-09) (pp. 342–347). Pasadena.

  • Nurmi H.: Voting paradoxes and how to deal with them. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • Özkal-Sanver I., Sanver M. R.: Ensuring pareto optimality by referendum voting. Social Choice and Welfare 27, 211–219 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rae D., Daudt H.: The ostrogorski paradox: A peculiarity of compound majority decision. European Journal of Political Research 4, 391–398 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratliff T. C.: Some startling inconsistencies when electing committees. Social Choice and Welfare 21(3), 433–454 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratliff T. C.: Selecting committees. Public Choice 126, 343–355 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean Lainé.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Çuhadaroğlu, T., Lainé, J. Pareto efficiency in multiple referendum. Theory Decis 72, 525–536 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-011-9286-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-011-9286-z

Keywords

JEL Classification

Navigation