Agenda

29 Apr 2024 12:15

Niall Hughes - Diversity in committees

Meeting Room 1, San Giobbe Economics Campus

Niall Hughes (King's College London)

Diversity in committees

Abstract: We investigate the potential of diversity to influence committee decision-making. In our model committee members receive private information on a state of the world, deliberate and vote. Committee members belong to one of two groups which may differ along two dimensions: (a) their preferences and (b) their information structures. If groups only differ in their information structures, welfare is increasing in committee diversity. If groups only differ in preferences, welfare is decreasing in diversity. If groups differ along both dimensions then, depending on parameters, welfare may be increasing, decreasing or non-monotonic in diversity. We test the model's key predictions in a laboratory experiment. As predicted, diverse committees outperform non-diverse committees when preferences are aligned. However, when preferences are misaligned diverse and non-diverse perform equally well. The reason is that participants reveal more information than theory predicts and update imperfectly.

Lingua

L'evento si terrà in inglese

Organizzatore

Department of Economics (EcSeminars)

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