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A rationale for unanimity in committees
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH
Abstract Existing theoretical and experimental studies have established that unanimity is a poor decision rule for promoting information aggregation. Despite this, unanimity is frequently used in committees making decisions on behalf of society. This paper shows that when committee members are exposed to "id... view more
Existing theoretical and experimental studies have established that unanimity is a poor decision rule for promoting information aggregation. Despite this, unanimity is frequently used in committees making decisions on behalf of society. This paper shows that when committee members are exposed to "idiosyncratic" payoffs that condition on their individual vote, unanimity can facilitate truthful communication and optimal information aggregation. Theoretically, we show that since agents" votes are not always pivotal, majority rule suffers from a free-rider problem. Unanimity mitigates free-riding since responsibility for the committee's decision is equally distributed across all agents. We test our predictions in a controlled laboratory experiment. As predicted, if unanimity is required, subjects are more truthful, respond more to others' messages, and are ultimately more likely to make the optimal decision. Idiosyncratic payoffs such as a moral bias thus present a rationale for the widespread use of unanimous voting.... view less
Keywords
aggregation; communication; conversation; decision; regulation; information; laboratory experiment
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Sociology of Communication, Sociology of Language, Sociolinguistics
Free Keywords
C90; D71; D72; committees; decision rules; incomplete information
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
41 p.
Series
Discussion Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Markt und Entscheidung, Abteilung Ökonomik des Wandels, SP II 2017-308
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/167587
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications