4 ms·

> If everybody gets paid, a winning strategy during the contract is to not really try; if only the winner gets paid, You pay everyone to participate and you gi

> If everybody gets paid, a winning strategy during the contract is to not really try; if only the winner gets paid, You pay everyone to participate and you give a bonus to the winner. People who don't make a reasonable effort won't get selected to participate next time.

sanderjd 3y ago
This reminds me of the argument for allocating research funds using prizes more so than grants, which I have found quite compelling.
- lordnacho 3y ago
  What argument is this? Can you explain more?
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    Phew, I found some breadcrumbs on this, I was afraid it was lost in the ether of stuff I've read and thought "huh, that's interesting and compelling" and then forgot the source of. So here's an article[0] Matt Yglesias wrote for Vox in 2014 about prizes to incentivize pharmaceutical research, rather than patents. I don't think this is where I first read about this (because I wasn't reading Vox in 2014), but I think either he or Ezra Klein talking about it on a podcast may be where I first came across it. Here's the summary of the idea from there: > A large cash prize creates an incentive to innovate just as much as a patent does, but offers several important advantages. It's very possible that this is really only relevant to scientific endeavors that pop out patents, rather than anything that is currently grant-funded. But I generally like this idea of big incentives to find an answer to something, rather than micro-managing the funding allocated to different proposed avenues of research toward an answer. I hate that all the PIs I know spend over half their time writing proposals, when they could just be researching. Here are a couple deeper links to economists writing about it (from that article)[1][2]. [0]: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/9/5788630/4-radical-ideas-for-promoting-more-affordable-health-care https://www.vox.com/2014/6/9/5788630/4-radical-ideas-for-pro... [1]: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/12/medical-patents-must-die.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/12/me... [2]: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/prizes--not-patents https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/prizes--not-pat...

sanderjd 3y ago

This reminds me of the argument for allocating research funds using prizes more so than grants, which I have found quite compelling.

lordnacho 3y ago
What argument is this? Can you explain more?
- sanderjd 3y ago
  Phew, I found some breadcrumbs on this, I was afraid it was lost in the ether of stuff I've read and thought "huh, that's interesting and compelling" and then forgot the source of. So here's an article[0] Matt Yglesias wrote for Vox in 2014 about prizes to incentivize pharmaceutical research, rather than patents. I don't think this is where I first read about this (because I wasn't reading Vox in 2014), but I think either he or Ezra Klein talking about it on a podcast may be where I first came across it. Here's the summary of the idea from there: > A large cash prize creates an incentive to innovate just as much as a patent does, but offers several important advantages. It's very possible that this is really only relevant to scientific endeavors that pop out patents, rather than anything that is currently grant-funded. But I generally like this idea of big incentives to find an answer to something, rather than micro-managing the funding allocated to different proposed avenues of research toward an answer. I hate that all the PIs I know spend over half their time writing proposals, when they could just be researching. Here are a couple deeper links to economists writing about it (from that article)[1][2]. [0]: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/9/5788630/4-radical-ideas-for-promoting-more-affordable-health-care https://www.vox.com/2014/6/9/5788630/4-radical-ideas-for-pro... [1]: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/12/medical-patents-must-die.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/12/me... [2]: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/prizes--not-patents https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/prizes--not-pat...