IMF Working Papers

The Limits of Meritocracy

By John Morgan, Justin Tumlinson, Felix J Vardy

November 1, 2018

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John Morgan, Justin Tumlinson, and Felix J Vardy. The Limits of Meritocracy, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2018) accessed November 5, 2024

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Summary

We show that too much meritocracy, modeled as accuracy of performance ranking in contests, can be a bad thing: in contests with homogeneous agents, it reduces output and is Pareto inefficient. In contests with sufficiently heterogeneous agents, discouragement and complacency effects further reduce the benefits of meritocracy. Perfect meritocracy may be optimal only for intermediate levels of heterogeneity.

Subject: Budget planning and preparation, Competition, Financial markets, Income inequality, National accounts, Public financial management (PFM)

Keywords: Aggregate output, Budget planning and preparation, Competition, Competition effect, Contest organizer, Efficiency, Equilibrium behavior, Income inequality, Level Playing Field, Meritocracy, Output measure, Participation prize, Prize schedule, Study contest design, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    87

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

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  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2018/231

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2018231

  • ISBN:

    9781484381175

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941