Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-14-2025
Abstract
We study how well people are able to solve pure coordination problems in continuous time. Subjects decide whether and when to pay a cost to go to market with their goods and earn money only if another person shows up at the same time. We show that coordination failure is common in a baseline, and we introduce treatments that feature public coordination devices (meant to mimic clocks) and assess the extent to which coordination improves when such devices are provided via different institutions. A publicly provided device outperforms a variety of privately provided alternatives. Our evidence suggests this is because reliable public provision eliminates uncertainty about whether (and how many) other people expect to observe the coordinating signal.
Recommended Citation
Boerner, L., Kimbrough, E. O., & Modak, M. (2025). Coordination in time. ESI Working Paper 25-09. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/423/
Comments
ESI Working Paper 25-09