Symmetric and asymmetric committees

C-Tier
Journal: Journal of Mathematical Economics
Year: 2011
Volume: 47
Issue: 4-5
Pages: 440-447

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

0.505 = (α=2.02 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

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.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:mateco:v:47:y:2011:i:4:p:440-447
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25