MOTIVES AND IMPLEMENTATION - ON THE DESIGN OF MECHANISMS TO ELICIT OPINIONS

A number of experts receive noisy signals regarding a desirable public decision. The public target is to make the best possible decision on thr basis of all the information held by the experts. We compare two ' 'cultures.'' Tn one, all experts are driven only by the public motive to increase the probability that the desirable action will be taken. I n the second, each expert is also driven by a private motive: to have his recommendation accepted. We show that in the First culture, every mechanism will have an equilibrium which does not achieve the public t arget, whereas the second culture gives rise to a mechanism whose uniq ue equilibrium outcome does achieve the public target. (C) 1998 Academ ic Press.