BUSINESS SCHOOL RESEARCH SEMINAR: Does Partial Randomization Encourage or Discourage Participation? Theory And Evidence

The seminar will be held in Edward Wright S86 and Online via MS Teams on March 12th from 3pm - 4:15pm (contact: bs-research@abdn.ac.uk for link).

Join Dr Tugce Cuhadaroglu, Lecturer in Economics at University of St Andrews Business School. Dr Cuhadaroglu is an economic theorist and her research fields are broadly Decision Theory and Inequality Theory.

Abstract:

“Partially Randomized Assessment (PRA) is a recent alternative to traditional ranking-based assessment methods, applicable in various contexts such as grant applications, promotion decisions, recruitment, and the selection of community projects. Under this method, reviewers are only required to provide a pass/fail decision about the proposals. The prizes are then randomly assigned among the proposals that receive a pass. For instance, the Health Research Council of New Zealand adopted PRA for their Explorer Grant in 2013, and both the British Academy and Carnegie Trust have initiated trials in recent years. However, due to its limited application and sparse data, the effectiveness and consequences of PRA remain undetermined. Specifically, it is unclear if and how the adoption of PRA affects the quality of submitted proposals. This project investigates potential channels through which replacing ranking-based systems with PRA might significantly affect the outcome: first, the level of effort applicants might exert for their proposals; and second, the types of individuals who decide to apply. Our aim is to focus on the second channel and understand whether certain types of individuals are systematically (and unintentionally) encouraged or discouraged to apply under one method but not the other. Our methods are twofold: we first investigate the theoretical predictions of this setting by comparing the behaviors of potential applicants of different types under each method; second, we test these predictions in a field experiment.”