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When more selection is worse

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Denrell, Jerker, Liu, Chengwei and Le Mens, Gaël (2017) When more selection is worse. Strategy Science, 2 (1). pp. 39-63. doi:10.1287/stsc.2017.0025

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2017.0025

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Abstract

We demonstrate a paradox of selection: the average level of skill among the survivors of selection may initially increase but eventually decrease. This result occurs in a simple model in which performance is not frequency dependent, there are no delayed effects, and skill is unrelated to risk-taking. The performance of an agent in any given period equals a skill component plus a noise term. We show that the average skill of survivors eventually decreases when the noise terms in consecutive periods are dependent and drawn from a distribution with a “long” tail—a sub-class of heavy-tailed distributions. This result occurs because only agents with extremely high level of performance survive many periods, and extreme performance is not diagnostic of high skill when the noise term is drawn from a long-tailed distribution.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Success in business -- Mathematical models, Business failures -- Mathematical models
Journal or Publication Title: Strategy Science
Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (I N F O R M S)
ISSN: 2333-2050
Official Date: 17 March 2017
Dates:
DateEvent
17 March 2017Published
16 January 2017Accepted
Volume: 2
Number: 1
Page Range: pp. 39-63
DOI: 10.1287/stsc.2017.0025
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access

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