Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/159602 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Quaderni - Working Paper DSE No. 763
Publisher: 
Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche (DSE), Bologna
Abstract: 
It is still an open question when groups will perform better than individuals in intellectual tasks. We report that in a company takeover experiment, groups placed better bids than individuals and substantially reduced the winner's curse. This improvement was mostly due to peer pressure over the minority opinion and to group learning. Learning took place from interacting and negotiating consensus with others, not simply from observing their bids. When there was disagreement within a group, what prevailed was not the best proposal but the one of the majority. Groups underperformed with respect to a "truth wins" benchmark although they outperformed individuals deciding in isolation.
JEL: 
C91
C92
D03
D81
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
464.45 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.