In this conference, Randy T. Simmons discusses public choice, defined as the discipline that applies the tools of economics to the study of collective action.  In his dicussion, Simmons focuses on voters and consumers, comparing and contrasting their incentives.  He explains that voters have little or no incentive to cast their votes because they believe individuals have almost no chance of affecting the outcome of an election.  Therefore, voters choose not to be informed because the individual cost to look into specific information surpasses the individual benefit.  Public choice sustains that market prices are valuable sources of useful information, while election results only measure the number of people with a fixed set of preferences without taking into consideration the intensity of those preferences.

Versión en español: ¿Hacia dónde se dirigen los campos de aplicación del análisis de las decisiones públicas?