And I Saw Her/Him Standing There: Transaction Costs in Partnerships

Kotrina Kajokaite and Lawrence R De Geest

We explore two types of transaction costs that hinder team production: publication costs that arise when the rate of output drops due to characteristics of the partnership (e.g. excessive correspondence, disagreements, etc) and authorship costs that arise from conflicts over who sits first author. We find that partnerships thrive when there are no difference or difference are small in publication costs between those who collaborate and those who work alone. Not having preference for authorship performs better than having a strong preference to be the first author.

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R source code: model script
R source code: plots