Committees as active audiences: Reputation concerns and information acquisition

Otto H. Swank and Bauke Visser

Journal of Public Economics, 2023, vol. 221, issue C

Abstract: We study committees that acquire information, deliberate, and vote. A member cares about state-dependent decision payoffs and his reputation for expertise. The state remains unobserved. In such environments, members’ internal reputations are based on deliberation patterns, while members’ external reputations are based on the observed group decision. We find that either form of reputation concerns creates strategic complementarity among members’ effort levels. Internal reputations create stronger incentives to become informed than external reputations. Their strength grows in committee size; external reputations create no incentives in large committees. Finally, reputation concerns may relax participation constraints.

Keywords: Committee decision making; Reputation concerns; Information acquisition; Strategic complements; Peers; Markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:221:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723000579

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104875

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