Why do people vote, and why do they vote the way they do? To answer this question, we discuss voting to change the outcome in favor of one's own material interest (pocketbook voting) and common good-oriented motives, which may provide utility independently of the outcome. Among the latter are...

The President of the United States is elected, not by a direct national popular vote, but by an Electoral College system under which (in almost universal practice since the 1830s) separate state popular votes are aggregated by adding up “electoral votes” awarded on a winner-take-all basis to...

Public choice scholars have studied the US Constitutional Convention to understand how economic and political interests influenced the final product. Early interpretations, such as Charles Beard's thesis, posited a conflict between personalty (capital owners) and realty (landowners). Later...

This chapter discusses the role of uncertainty in economic reforms. We distinguish between individual and aggregate uncertainty, where either only individuals or whole societies are uncertain about the consequences and desirability of economic reforms. We also discuss mechanisms to overcome the...

This chapter explores the importance of trust in financial institutions and central banks, which are vital for modern societies and economies. It delves into the differences in their structures and roles, analyzing factors that influence public trust. While examining theoretical frameworks and...

In a 1975 article, Gordon Tullock explained the transitional gains trap. He proposed it to explain why the “beneficiaries” of government privileges fight to keep them, even when the benefits are not providing them with anything more than the regular competitive rate of return. As Tullock...

In threshold public good games with binary contributions, the public good is provided if and only if the number of contributions exceeds a given threshold. The equilibrium of this game and its properties are investigated. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the probability that the public good...

This chapter addresses the supply of suicide or martyr actions, terrorist or otherwise, and asks how voluntary self-sacrifice for a cause can be rational. A range of models ignore otherworldly motives and seek to encompass all kinds of self-sacrifice, religious or secular, collectively organized...

This chapter defines various kinds of strategic voting and explores the conditions where it occurs. It overviews theoretical frameworks, categorizing them into (1) structural explanations focusing on electoral systems and voting methods, and (2) actor-based explanations examining individual...

The strategic motives for engaging in corporate environmentalism are examined, i.e., going beyond minimum environmental quality standards as a way to influence future regulation or market conditions. The main focus is on self-regulation as a way to block (even stricter) future regulation, but...