IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v108y2018i2p489-520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Certified Random: A New Order for Coauthorship

Author

Listed:
  • Debraj Ray
  • Arthur Robson

Abstract

Alphabetical name order is the norm for joint publications in economics. However, alphabetical order confers greater benefits on the first author. In a two-author model, we introduce and study certified random order: the uniform randomization of names made universally known by a commonly understood symbol. Certified random order (i) distributes the gain from first authorship evenly over the alphabet; (ii) allows either author to signal when contributions are extremely unequal; (iii) will invade an environment where alphabetical order is dominant; (iv) is robust to deviations; (v) may be ex ante more efficient than alphabetical order; and (vi) is no more complex than the existing alphabetical system modified by occasional reversal of name order.

Suggested Citation

  • Debraj Ray & Arthur Robson, 2018. "Certified Random: A New Order for Coauthorship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 489-520, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:108:y:2018:i:2:p:489-520
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20161492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161492
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=mD57XqcqQvur3oCVBiUhsMg8lE1-J2MB
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liran Einav & Leeat Yariv, 2006. "What's in a Surname? The Effects of Surname Initials on Academic Success," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 175-187, Winter.
    2. Matthias Weber, 2016. "The Effects of Listing Authors in Alphabetical Order: A survey of the Empirical Evidence," Bank of Lithuania Occasional Paper Series 12, Bank of Lithuania.
    3. Farrell Joseph, 1993. "Meaning and Credibility in Cheap-Talk Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 514-531, October.
    4. Daniel Feenberg & Ina Ganguli & Patrick Gaulé & Jonathan Gruber, 2017. "It’s Good to Be First: Order Bias in Reading and Citing NBER Working Papers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 32-39, March.
    5. Heiko Jacobs & Alexander Hillert, 2016. "Alphabetic Bias, Investor Recognition, and Trading Behavior," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(2), pages 693-723.
    6. Machina, Mark J, 1989. "Dynamic Consistency and Non-expected Utility Models of Choice under Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 27(4), pages 1622-1668, December.
    7. Jennifer Itzkowitz & Jesse Itzkowitz & Scott Rothbort, 2016. "ABCs of Trading: Behavioral Biases affect Stock Turnover and Value," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(2), pages 663-692.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Utz Weitzel & Michael Kirchler, 2021. "The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice," Working Papers 2021-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck.
    2. Garance Genicot ⓡ & Laurent Bouton ⓡ & Micael Castanheira ⓡ, 2018. "Electoral Systems and Inequalities in Government Interventions," NBER Working Papers 25205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Debraj Ray & Rajiv Vohra, 2020. "Games of Love and Hate," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(5), pages 1789-1825.
    4. Eisner, Manuel & Ribeaud, Denis & Sorrenti, Giuseppe & Zölitz, Ulf, 2020. "The Causal Impact of Socio-Emotional Skills Training on Educational Success," CEPR Discussion Papers 14523, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Gaudeul, Alexia & Crosetto, Paolo, 2019. "Fast then slow: A choice process explanation for the attraction effect," Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research Discussion Papers 386, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    6. Wohlrabe, Klaus & Bornmann, Lutz, 2019. "Alphabetized co-authorship in economics reconsidered," MPRA Paper 93836, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ong, David & Chan, Ho Fai & Torgler, Benno & Yang, Yu (Alan), 2018. "Collaboration incentives: Endogenous selection into single and coauthorships by surname initial in economics and management," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 41-57.
    8. Cheng, Hua & Hu, Cui & Li, Ben G., 2020. "Lexicographic biases in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    9. Dworczak, Pitor & Kominers, Scott Duke & Akbarpour, Mohammad, 2018. "Redistribution through Markets," Research Papers 3763, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    10. Nicolas Vallois & Dorian Jullien, 2017. "Replication in Experimental Economics: A Historical and Quantitative Approach Focused on Public Good Game Experiments," GREDEG Working Papers 2017-21, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    11. Lou, Youcheng & Parsa, Sahar & Ray, Debraj & Li, Duan & Wang, Shouyang, 2019. "Information aggregation in a financial market with general signal structure," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 594-624.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheng, Hua & Hu, Cui & Li, Ben G., 2020. "Lexicographic biases in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Baer, Naomi & Barry, Erica & Smith, Gary, 2020. "The name game: The importance of resourcefulness, ruses, and recall in stock ticker symbols," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 410-413.
    3. Dierick, Nicolas & Heyman, Dries & Inghelbrecht, Koen & Stieperaere, Hannes, 2019. "Financial attention and the disposition effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 190-217.
    4. Harris, Mark & Novarese, Marco & Wilson, Chris, 2019. "Being in the Right Place: A Natural Field Experiment on the Causes of Position Effects in Individual Choice," MPRA Paper 94072, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Ong, David & Chan, Ho Fai & Torgler, Benno & Yang, Yu (Alan), 2018. "Collaboration incentives: Endogenous selection into single and coauthorships by surname initial in economics and management," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 41-57.
    6. Xing, Xuejing & Anderson, Randy I. & Hu, Yan, 2016. "What׳s a name worth? The impact of a likeable stock ticker symbol on firm value," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 63-80.
    7. Winkler, Bernhard, 2000. "Which kind of transparency? On the need for clarity in monetary policy-making," Working Paper Series 0026, European Central Bank.
    8. Drouhin, Nicolas, 2015. "A rank-dependent utility model of uncertain lifetime," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 208-224.
    9. Luca Anderlini & Dino Gerardi & Roger Lagunoff, 2008. "A “Super” Folk Theorem for dynastic repeated games," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 37(3), pages 357-394, December.
    10. Adam Dominiak & Jean-Philippe Lefort, 2011. "Unambiguous events and dynamic Choquet preferences," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 46(3), pages 401-425, April.
    11. Konstantinos Georgalos, 2016. "Dynamic decision making under ambiguity," Working Papers 112111041, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    12. Eduardo Perez-Richet, 2014. "Interim Bayesian Persuasion: First Steps," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 469-474, May.
    13. Nicholas Barberis, 2012. "A Model of Casino Gambling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 35-51, January.
    14. Eddie Dekel & Barton L. Lipman & Aldo Rustichini, 2009. "Temptation-Driven Preferences," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(3), pages 937-971.
    15. Chan, Jimmy & Suen, Wing, 2009. "Media as watchdogs: The role of news media in electoral competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 799-814, October.
    16. Nabil I. Al-Najjar, 2015. "A Bayesian Framework for the Precautionary Principle," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(S2), pages 337-365.
    17. Hoi Quoc Le & Thi Minh Nguyen, 2018. "Behaviors in the market for safe vegetables under information asymmetry: modeling approach," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(3), pages 381-392, December.
    18. Tolga Yuret, 2016. "Does alphabetization significantly affect academic careers?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1603-1619, September.
    19. Goodman, Joshua Samuel & Goodman, Lucas & Goodman, Sarena & Goodman, Allen C., 2014. "A Few Goodmen: Surname-Sharing Co-Authors in Economics," Scholarly Articles 22805379, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    20. Sultan Orazbayev, 2017. "Sequential order as an extraneous factor in editorial decision," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(3), pages 1573-1592, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:108:y:2018:i:2:p:489-520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Michael P. Albert). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.