Symmetric and asymmetric committees

Ruth Ben-Yashar and Leif Danziger ()

Journal of Mathematical Economics, 2011, vol. 47, issue 4-5, 440-447

Abstract: 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 the various skill levels and each committee has an odd number of members. Surprisingly, even with the symmetric assumptions in the spirit of Condorcet, a symmetric composition of committees is not always optimal. In other words, decision makers with different skill levels should not generally be evenly divided among the committees. However, in the special case of only two skill levels, it is optimal to compose the committees evenly.

Keywords: Committees; Collective decision making; Simple majority rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Working Paper: Symmetric and Asymmetric Committees (2011)
Working Paper: Symmetric and Asymmetric Committees (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:mateco:v:47:y:2011:i:4:p:440-447

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmateco.2011.06.001

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