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Are Two Heads Better Than One?: An Experimental Analysis of Group vs. Individual Decisionmaking

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Author Info
Alan S. Blinder
John Morgan

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Abstract

Two laboratory experiments - one a statistical urn problem, the other a monetary policy experiment - were run to test the commonly-believed hypothesis that groups make decisions more slowly than individuals do. Surprisingly, this turns out not to be true there is no significant difference in average decision lags. Furthermore, and also surprisingly, there is no significant difference in the decision lag when groups decisions are made by majority rule versus when they are made under a unanimity requirement. In addition, group decisions are on average superior to individual decisions. The results are strikingly similar across the two experiments.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7909.

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Date of creation: Sep 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7909

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E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

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  1. Laurence Ball, 1997. "Efficient Rules for Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 5952, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Laurence Ball, 1997. "Efficient rules for monetary policy," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series G97/3, Reserve Bank of New Zealand. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Antoni Bosch-Domenech et al., 2002. "One, Two, (Three), Infinity, . . . : Newspaper and Lab Beauty-Contest Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1687-1701, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Tilman Slembeck & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2002. "Do Institutions Promote Rationality? An Experimental Study of the Three-Door Anomaly," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2002 2002-21, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Gary Charness & Matthew O. Jackson, 2004. "Group Play in Games and the Role of Consent in Network Formation," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000000213, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Anne Sibert, 2006. "Central Banking by Committee," DNB Working Papers 091, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Anna Maffioletti & Michele Santoni, 2001. "Do trade union leaders violate subjective expected utility? Some insight from experimental data," Departemental Working Papers 2001-15, Department of Economics University of Milan Italy.
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  6. David Masclet & Youenn Loheac & Laurent Denant-Boemont & Nathalie Colombier, 2004. "Group and individual risk preferences : a lottery-choice experiment," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques bla06063, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), revised Sep 2006. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Amihai Glazer, 2006. "Predicting Committee Action," Working Papers 050621, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Clare Lombardelli & James Proudman & James Talbot, 2005. "Committees Versus Individuals: An Experimental Analysis of Monetary Policy Decision-Making," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 1(1), May. [Downloadable!]
  9. Mihov, Ilian & Sibert, Anne, 2002. "Credibility and Flexibility with Monetary Policy Committees," CEPR Discussion Papers 3278, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Jim Engle-Warnick & Nurlan Turdaliev, 2005. "An Experimental Test Of Taylor-Type Rules With Inexperienced Central Bankers," Macroeconomics 0511022, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Katerina Smidkova, 2003. "Methods Available to Monetary Policy Makers to Deal with Uncertainty," Macroeconomics 0310002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  12. Dino Gerardi & Leeat Yariv, 2003. "Putting Your Ballot Where Your Mouth Is: An Analysis of Collective Choice with Communication," UCLA Economics Working Papers 827, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Lombardelli, Clare & Proudman, James & Talbot, James, 2005. "Committees Versus Individuals: An Experimental Analysis of Monetary Policy Decision Making," MPRA Paper 823, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  14. Matthias Sutter, 2004. "Are four heads better than two? An experimental beauty-contest game with teams of different size," Discussion Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-15, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Martin G. Kocher & Matthias Sutter, . "Individual versus group behavior and the role of the decision making procedure in gift-exchange experiments," Discussion Papers on Strategic Interaction 2002-27, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
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  16. Dino Gerardi & Leeat Yariv, 2003. "Putting Your Ballot Where you Mouth Is: An Analysis of Collective Choice," Levine's Bibliography 506439000000000280, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  17. Martin Kocher & Sabine Strauß & Matthias Sutter, 2004. "Individual or team decision-making - Causes and consequences of self-selection," Discussion Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-31, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
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  18. Ilian Mihov & Anne Sibert, 2002. "Credibility and Flexibility with Monetary Policy Committees," Working Papers 232002, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research. [Downloadable!]
  19. Martin G. Kocher & Matthias Sutter, 2004. "The Decision Maker Matters: Individual versus Group Behaviour in Experimental Beauty-Contest Games," Discussion Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-09, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  20. Clare Lombardelli & James Proudman & James Talbot, . "Committees versus individuals: an experimental analysis of monetary policy decision-making," Bank of England working papers 165, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
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