Biased experts, majority rule, and the optimal composition of committee

dc.contributor.author

Name Correa, AJ

dc.contributor.author

Yildirim, H

dc.date.accessioned

2022-02-01T14:20:59Z

dc.date.available

2022-02-01T14:20:59Z

dc.date.issued

2021-05-01

dc.date.updated

2022-02-01T14:20:58Z

dc.description.abstract

An uninformed principal appoints a committee of experts to vote on a multi-attribute alternative, such as an interdisciplinary project. Each expert evaluates one attribute and is biased toward it (specialty bias). The principal values all attributes equally but has a status quo bias, reflecting the organizational cost of a change. We study whether the principal would compose the committee of more or less specialty-biased experts. We show that her optimal composition is nonmonotonic in the majority rule, with the most biased experts appointed under intermediate rules. We then show that the principal would be less concerned about the committee composition if its members can be uninformed, as they induce the informed to vote less strategically. Surprisingly, although uninformed members lower the quality of the committee's decision, the principal may prefer to have some when its composition is suboptimal, and the majority rule is sufficiently extreme, such as the unanimity.

dc.identifier.issn

0899-8256

dc.identifier.issn

1090-2473

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24279

dc.language

en

dc.publisher

Elsevier BV

dc.relation.ispartof

Games and Economic Behavior

dc.relation.isversionof

10.1016/j.geb.2021.01.010

dc.subject

bias

dc.subject

partisanship

dc.subject

majority rule

dc.subject

committee

dc.title

Biased experts, majority rule, and the optimal composition of committee

dc.type

Journal article

pubs.begin-page

1

pubs.end-page

27

pubs.issue

268

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

pubs.organisational-group

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

pubs.organisational-group

Economics

pubs.publication-status

Published

pubs.volume

127

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