Self-Starters Are Leaders: Present-Bias Asymmetry and Collective Procrastination

Teamwork can either cure or create procrastination. We trace this to guilt: present-biased members who break a joint plan feel guilt that is largest when one shirks alone and smallest when failure is shared-an ordering we derive from a single monotonicity of second-order beliefs rather than impose. The resulting coordination game traps the team in collective procrastination only under symmetry. Two kinds of member break the symmetry and lead the team out, both by acting as a self-starter-one who acts whatever the partner does. The first has the disposition by type: enough follow-through to act unconditionally, she does exactly what a committed visible leader would. The second acquires it by foresight: a sophisticated member who anticipates her own delay pays to commit, making herself a self-starter where her type alone would not. A self-starter is thus an endogenous leader, supplied by heterogeneity when present bias differs across members and by self-commitment when it does not.