Do People Put Their Money Where Their Votes Are? The Case of Lottery Tickets

In political markets people vote with their ballots, whereas in economic markets they vote with their dollars. In this paper we seek to determine how voting and purchasing behavior are interrelated when voters must first approve the sale of a good (i.e., establish a legal market) before purchases can be made. This question is particularly interesting because it focuses on a fundamental assumption underlying basic voting models-that there is a link running from economic characteristics to political behavior, and presumably back to economic decisions. Using voting data from a Kansas constitutional referendum to establish a state-owned and operated lottery and subsequent sales data from the lottery, we investigate whether the determinants of voting and purchasing behavior are the same, or at least in some sense consistent; the extent to which voting preferences reflect purchasing preferences; and whether voter preferences represent those of nonvoters.'