TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolution of social norms with heterogeneous preferences
T2 - A general model and an application to the academic review process
AU - Azar, Ofer H.
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank Gadi Barlevy, Jacques Cremer, Eddie Dekel, Ricky Lam, Nisan Langberg, Nadav Levy, Robert Porter, William Rogerson, Michael Whinston, Asher Wolinsky, and especially James Dana, Glenn Ellison, an anonymous referee, and the Editor J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., for helpful discussions and comments. I am also grateful for their comments to the participants in the seminars given in Bar-Ilan University, University of Haifa, and Ben-Gurion University, and the participants in the 2003 EEA meetings in Stockholm. Financial support from The Center for the Study of Industrial Organization at Northwestern University and from The Phillipe Monaster Center for Economic Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2008/3/1
Y1 - 2008/3/1
N2 - The article presents a model of social norm evolution that suggests how the increase in optimal and actual first response times (FRT) of economics journals can be related. When the optimal FRT and the norm about how much time refereeing should take increase, it seems that the existence of a norm increases the average refereeing time. The model suggests the surprising result that this is not necessarily true. I also discuss applications of the model in other contexts, differences in the optimal FRT between disciplines, the effects of the FRT on the tenure process, and strategic behavior of referees.
AB - The article presents a model of social norm evolution that suggests how the increase in optimal and actual first response times (FRT) of economics journals can be related. When the optimal FRT and the norm about how much time refereeing should take increase, it seems that the existence of a norm increases the average refereeing time. The model suggests the surprising result that this is not necessarily true. I also discuss applications of the model in other contexts, differences in the optimal FRT between disciplines, the effects of the FRT on the tenure process, and strategic behavior of referees.
KW - Academic publishing industry
KW - Evolution
KW - First response times
KW - Refereeing process
KW - Social norms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=39149100633&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2006.03.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2006.03.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:39149100633
SN - 0167-2681
VL - 65
SP - 420
EP - 435
JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
IS - 3-4
ER -