OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
We propose a model where a privately informed agent submits an application to obtain a benefit, such as a patent approval, a journal publication or a research grant. The evaluator observes a noisy signal about the applicant’s merit and decides whether to approve or reject the application. The application serves as a costly ordeal, encouraging self-selection of applicants more likely to succeed. What is the optimal ordeal the evaluator should impose on the applicant? When is it optimal to make the application costless? We characterize the optimal ordeal and identify monotonicity of the hazard ratios (ratio of hazard rates) of the applicant’s and evaluator’s signals as the driving condition for the results.
