It’s probably true for most organization failures? (See also Moral Mazes.)
It at least seems like “the incentives weren’t good” should be the starting point for most analysis like this. (And for cases where it shouldn’t be the starting point, there should be a clear story about why the case is exceptional.)
It’s a common hypothesis that a given supposed organisational failure is due to poor incentives, yes. That is well-known. There are also other common hypotheses. I don’t think it’s useful to merely state one particular well-known hypothesis for why organisations fail in a discussion about a specific case like this. It doesn’t add anything.
It’s like saying “maybe it’s due to self-serving signalling” [edited for clarity: that would be another hypothesis]. Self-serving signalling may indeed explain many phenomena, but it’s not very useful to state that as an explanation of a specific phenomenon without giving any evidence pertaining to that specific phenomenon.
Furthermore, under a reasonable interpretation saying that a supposed failure is due to poor incentives entails that the individuals who acted on those incentives did so for self-interested reasons (naïve homo economicus is of course associated with self-interested behaviour). Thus it means that they did what served their own interests rather than the common good. I wouldn’t make such sensitive conjectures unless I had evidence that that is indeed true of the case at hand.
That’s armchair conjecture—and you can say that about any supposed failure in an organisation. I don’t find this comment helpful.
It’s probably true for most organization failures? (See also Moral Mazes.)
It at least seems like “the incentives weren’t good” should be the starting point for most analysis like this. (And for cases where it shouldn’t be the starting point, there should be a clear story about why the case is exceptional.)
It’s a common hypothesis that a given supposed organisational failure is due to poor incentives, yes. That is well-known. There are also other common hypotheses. I don’t think it’s useful to merely state one particular well-known hypothesis for why organisations fail in a discussion about a specific case like this. It doesn’t add anything.
It’s like saying “maybe it’s due to self-serving signalling” [edited for clarity: that would be another hypothesis]. Self-serving signalling may indeed explain many phenomena, but it’s not very useful to state that as an explanation of a specific phenomenon without giving any evidence pertaining to that specific phenomenon.
Furthermore, under a reasonable interpretation saying that a supposed failure is due to poor incentives entails that the individuals who acted on those incentives did so for self-interested reasons (naïve homo economicus is of course associated with self-interested behaviour). Thus it means that they did what served their own interests rather than the common good. I wouldn’t make such sensitive conjectures unless I had evidence that that is indeed true of the case at hand.