ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Rational Ignorance

• School: University of Illinois
• Department: Economics
• Course: ECON 102
• Professor: Isaac Dilanni

Document Summary

Econ 102 - lecture 25 - public choice (cont. ) Voter incentives: (p x ncd + d) > c. P = probability of decisiveness: the probability that one individual"s vote will affect the outcome of the election. Ncd = net candidate differential: the net benefits of one candidate over the other from the perspective of the individual voter. D = civic duty: the satisfaction that the voter gets from the act of voting itself. C = cost of voting: all costs involved in voting. Basically, people will vote if 0>c, but c would definitely be more than 0. If no one else votes, your p increases. Rational ignorance- when a person is ignorant because the cost of gaining additional information would outweigh the benefit. Reduce the information costs of their members to overcome the problem of rational ignorance. Spend members" money to affect elections or influence politicians. Laws that get passed have concentrated benefits and diffuse costs.