In this paper we examine the impact of reciprocal motives on decision-making in a committee. We show that any voting behavior that constitutes an equilibrium without reciprocity also represents an equilibrium when people are reciprocally motivated. If reciprocal motives are important, additional...

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...

We propose a two-period model of a committee with sequentially voting members, who may differ in their degree of efficiency. In this model we examine whether the publication of the committee's voting records is desirable. We show that first-period welfare is higher if voting records remain...

We integrate a monetary policy committee into a New Keynesian model to assess the consequences of the committee's institutional characteristics for welfare. First, we demonstrate that uncertainty about the committee's future composition may be desirable. Second, we show that longer terms of...

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...