Viewpoint: Decision‐making in committees

Abstract

Abstract This article reviews recent developments in the theory of committee decision‐making. A committee consists of self‐interested members who make a public decision by aggregating imperfect information dispersed among them according to a pre‐specified decision rule. We focus on costly information acquisition, strategic information aggregation, and rules and processes that enhance the quality of the committee decision. Seeming inefficiencies of the committee decision‐making process such as over‐cautiousness, voting, and delay emerge as partial remedies to these incentive problems.