A COMPARISON OF PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE VOTING WITH HETEROGENEOUS POLITICIANS

A long-standing empirical literature has been concerned with determini ng whether voters vote ''prospectively'' or ''retrospectively,'' Despi te this interest, little is known about the consequences of one voting regime versus another. This study addresses this deficiency. We find that voter welfare can be greatly affected by the candidate selection technique employed by voters. Among other findings, we show that ''ele cting the best candidate'' does not always maximize voter welfare. Fur thermore, ''myopic'' voting is sometimes superior to ''farsighted'' vo ting. These findings have implications for interpretations of empirica l studies of voter behavior.