2022 Best TE Paper Prize Awarded

We are pleased to announce that "Uncertainty-Driven Cooperation," by Doruk Cetemen, Ilwoo Hwang, and Ayça Kaya, Theoretical Economics, Volume 15, Number 3 (2020)  has been awarded the 2022 Best TE Paper Prize.

Abstract
We consider dynamic team production in the presence of uncertainty. Team members receive interim feedback that depends on both their current effort level and the project's uncertain prospects. In this environment, each member can encourage the others by making them more optimistic about the project's prospects. We study the extent to which this incentive counters the usual free-riding incentive. Restricting the agents' access to feedback can increase their equilibrium effort levels by mitigating the ratchet effect. In this case, using joint performance measures can be beneficial even when individual measures are available.

The “Best Paper” prize alternates yearly between Quantitative Economics and Theoretical Economics. The single paper winner is selected from all papers published in the corresponding journal during the previous two years by an external committee appointed by the President of the Society, as described in Section 8.5 of the Society’s Rules and Procedures.

Thank you to the 2022 Best Paper Prize committee members Bart Lipman (Chair), Giuseppe Moscarini, Eddie Dekel, Debraj Ray and Leeat Yariv for their work on behalf of the Econometric Society.