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We consider a framework where the optimal decision rule determining the collective choice depends in a simple way on the decision makers' posterior probabilities of a particular state of nature. Nevertheless, voting is generally an inefficient way to make collective choices and this paper sheds...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010457829
This paper studies the assignment of decision makers to two committees that make decisions by a simple majority rule. There is an even number of decision makers at each of various skill levels and each committee has an odd number of members. Surprisingly, even with the symmetric assumptions in...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009309640
under secrecy. This occurs despite subjects revealing more information under transparency than theory predicts. …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010516456
This paper derives a simple characterization of how to optimally divide an organization's experts into different decision-making committees. The focus is on many three-member committees that make decisions by a simple majority rule. We find that the allocation of experts to committees is optimal...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010246652
This paper analyzes how to allocate experts into committees that use the unanimity rule to make decisions. We show that an optimal allocation of experts is extremely asymmetric. To reach the optimal allocation, therefore, one needs only to rank the experts in terms of their abilities and then...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011457362
We analyze the political stability of funded social security. Using a stylized theoretical framework we study the mechanisms behind governments capturing social security assets in order to lower current taxes. The results and the driving mechanisms carry over to a fully-fledged and carefully...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012648353
Leaks are pervasive in politics. Hence, many committees that nominally operate under secrecy de facto operate under the threat that information might be passed on to outsiders. We study theoretically and experimentally how this possibility affects the behavior of committee members and the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012295187
In this article, we empirically study the survival of the ruling party in parliamentary democracies using a hazard rate model. We define survival of a crisis as being successful in a critical vote in the parliament. We develop a general probabilistic model of political crises and test it...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012019199
We determine the scoring rule that is most likely to select a high-ability candidate. A major result is that neither the widely used plurality rule nor the inverse-plurality rule are ever optimal, and that the Borda rule is hardly ever optimal. Furthermore, we show that only the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011795205
provide a novel decomposition of labor income tax formulas into a redistribution and an insurance component. The latter is … capital tax is non-zero and trades off redistribution and insurance against savings distortions. Our quantitative results … bound on optimal taxes: even for welfare functions that do not value redistribution, marginal tax rates are positive for all …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011283108