Hidden Actions and Hidden Information in Peer Review: A Dynamic Solution

Abstract: We develop a simple model of the scientific peer review process, in which authors of varying ability invest to produce papers of varying quality, and journals evaluate papers based on a noisy signal, choosing to accept or reject each paper. We find that the first-best outcome is the limiting case as the evaluation technology is perfected, even though author type and effort are not known to the journal. Then, we consider the case where journals allow authors to challenge an initial rejection, and find that this approach to peer review yields an outcome closer to the first best relative to the approach that does not allow for such challenges.