IFREE/ESI Lecture Series Presents: John Morgan, Ph.D. “On the Merits of Meritocracy”

October 19, 2012

Oct. 19th, John Morgan, Ph.D. – On the Merits of Meritocracy

Abstract: We study career choice when competition for promotion is a contest. A more meritocratic profession always succeeds in attracting the highest ability types, whereas a profession with superior promotion benefits attracts high types only if the hazard rate of the noise in performance evaluation is strictly increasing. Raising promotion opportunities produces no systematic effect on the talent distribution, while a higher base wage attracts talent only if total promotion opportunities are sufficiently plentiful.

Bio: John Morgan is the Gary and Sherron Kalbach Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. His research includes studies of the economics of the Internet, tournaments and contests, information flows within organizations, and auctions. His recent paper, “Tournaments for Ideas” received the Accenture Award for the best paper published in 2010 in California Management Review. In addition to top academic journals, his research has also been featured in The New York Times, Money, and The Economist magazines. Morgan is the Founding Director of Xlab, Berkeley’s experimental social sciences lab. He is also Faculty Director of Executive Education at the Haas School and a Research Scientist at Yahoo! In addition to his academic research, Morgan is also a passionate photographer.