The Optimality of the Expert and Majority Rules Under Exponentially Distributed Competence

Theory and Decision 45 (1):19-36 (1998)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We study the uncertain dichotomous choice model. In this model a set of decision makers is required to select one of two alternatives, say ‘support’ or ‘reject’ a certain proposal. Applications of this model are relevant to many areas, such as political science, economics, business and management. The purpose of this paper is to estimate and compare the probabilities that different decision rules may be optimal. We consider the expert rule, the majority rule and a few in-between rules. The information on the decisional skills is incomplete, and these skills arise from an exponential distribution. It turns out that the probability that the expert rule is optimal far exceeds the probability that the majority rule is optimal, especially as the number of the decision makers becomes large

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,202

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Order relations among efficient decision rules.Jacob Paroush - 1997 - Theory and Decision 43 (3):209-218.
Special majorities rationalized.Robert E. Goodin & Christian List - 2006 - British Journal of Political Science 36 (2):213-241.
The pareto efficiency and expected costs of k-majority rules.Keith L. Dougherty & Julian Edward - 2004 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 3 (2):161-189.
Arguing for majority rule.Mathias Risse - 2004 - Journal of Political Philosophy 12 (1):41–64.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-09-02

Downloads
97 (#171,878)

6 months
9 (#242,802)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?