No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

We study a novel mechanism design model in which agents each arrive sequentially and choose one action from a set of actions with unknown rewards. The information revealed by the principal affects the incentives of the agents to explore and generate new information. We characterize the optimal disclosure policy of a planner whose goal is to maximize social welfare. One interpretation of our result is the implementation of what is known as the "wisdom of the crowd." This topic has become increasingly relevant with the rapid spread of the Internet over the past decade.

Citation indices attempt to provide useful information about a researcher's publication record by summarizing it with a single numerical score. They provide government agencies, departmental and university committees, administrators, faculty, and students with a simple and potentially informative tool for comparing one researcher to another, and are regularly used to inform critical decisions about funding, promotion, and tenure. With decisions of this magnitude on the line, one should approach the problem of developing a good index as systematically as possible. Doing so here, we are led to a unique new index.