Legislative bargaining with private information: a comparison of majority and unanimity rule

We present a three-person, two-period bargaining game with private information. A single proposer is seeking to secure agreement to a proposal under either majority or unanimity rule. If the first period proposal fails, the game ends immediately with an exogenously given "breakdown" probab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Piazolo, David (Author) , Vanberg, Christoph (Author)
Format: Book/Monograph Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Heidelberg Heidelberg University, Department of Economics 27 Juli 2024
Series:AWI discussion paper series no. 753 (July 2024)
In: AWI discussion paper series (no. 753 (July 2024))

DOI:10.11588/heidok.00035195
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Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/35195/13/Piazolo_Vanberg_2024_dp753.pdf
Resolving-System, kostenfrei: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-351956
Resolving-System, kostenfrei: https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00035195
Resolving-System, kostenfrei: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/301235
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Author Notes:David Piazolo, Christoph Vanberg
Description
Summary:We present a three-person, two-period bargaining game with private information. A single proposer is seeking to secure agreement to a proposal under either majority or unanimity rule. If the first period proposal fails, the game ends immediately with an exogenously given "breakdown" probability. Two responders have privately known disagreement payoffs. We characterize Bayesian equilibria in stagewise undominated strategies. Our central result is that responders have a signaling incentive to vote "no" on the first proposal under unanimity rule, whereas no such incentive exists under majority rule. The reason is that being perceived as a "high breakdown value type" is advantageous under unanimity rule, but disadvantageous under majority rule. As a consequence, responders are "more expensive" under unanimity rule and disagreement is more likely. These results confirm intuitions that have been stated informally before and in addition yield deeper insights into the underlying incentives and what they imply for optimal behavior in bargaining with private information.
Physical Description:Online Resource
DOI:10.11588/heidok.00035195