Fostering collaboration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Deb, Joyee; Kuvalear, Aditya V.; Lipnowski, Elliot
• 署名单位: New York University; University of Essex; Yale University
• 刊物名称: THEORETICAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1933-6837
• DOI: 10.3982/TE5742
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Experimentation

摘要

We study project selection and development by a principal, interacting with two agents, each of whom wants his respective project selected. When the best choice is uncertain, keeping both projects alive gives the principal the ability to adapt her choice in the future, but implies an efficiency loss of effort being spent on the project finally not chosen. We show that a time-varying threshold rule is uniquely optimal: the principal selects the first project to achieve a sufficient lead. The optimum entails initial competition, always followed by permanent collaboration. Our proof uses martingale time-change methods that apply weak solutions.