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  • Article
  • American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings

Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy

By: Edward Glaeser, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers and Michael Luca
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

The proliferation of big data makes it possible to better target city services like hygiene inspections, but city governments rarely have the in-house talent needed for developing prediction algorithms. Cities could hire consultants, but a cheaper alternative is to crowdsource competence by making data public and offering a reward for the best algorithm. A simple model suggests that open tournaments dominate consulting contracts when cities can tolerate risk and when there is enough labor with low opportunity costs. We also report on an inexpensive Boston-based restaurant tournament, which yielded algorithms that proved reasonably accurate when tested "out-of-sample" on hygiene inspections.

Keywords

User-generated Content; Operations; Tournaments; Policy-making; Machine Learning; Online Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; City; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Government and Politics

Citation

Glaeser, Edward, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers, and Michael Luca. "Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy." American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 106, no. 5 (May 2016): 114–118.
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About The Authors

Scott Duke Kominers

Entrepreneurial Management
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Michael Luca

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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  • Black Ownership Matters: Does Revealing Race Increase Demand for Minority-Owned Businesses? By: Abhay Aneja, Michael Luca and Oren Reshef
  • Digital Public Health Interventions at Scale: The Impact of Social Media Advertising on Beliefs and Outcomes Related to COVID Vaccines By: Susan Athey, Kristen Grabarz, Michael Luca and Nils Wernerfelt
  • Progressive Decentralization: A High-level Framework By: Jad Esber and Scott Duke Kominers
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