Talk:Screening (economics)

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Introductory paragraph[edit]

I suggest the introductory paragraph be reworded so that at least the first sentence gives a good idea of the concept for those outside the field of economics, e.g., completely jargon-free. Important jargon can be brought in and explained briefly as needed, but preferably not in the first sentence: "Screening in economics refers to a strategy of combating adverse selection, one of the potential decision-making complications in cases of asymmetric information." -DoctorW 21:00, 19 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dr. Villeval's comment on this article[edit]

Dr. Villeval has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:


The text is little documented. It could mention that screening can be multidimensional.

It could be related to incentives, as people self-select into different incentive schemes. Important missing references are: Stigliz, J. (1975). A Theory of Screening, Education, and the Distribution of Income. American Economic Review. Pierre-Andre Chiappori and Bernard Salanié (20). Testing Contract Theory: A Survey of Some Recent Work. in Dewatripont, Hansen and Turnovski (Eds.). Advances in economics and econometrics. Cambridge University Press.

Weiss, A. (1995). Human capital vs. signalling explanations of wages. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(4),133-154.


We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

Dr. Villeval has published scholarly research which seems to be relevant to this Wikipedia article:


  • Reference : David Dickinson & Marie Claire Villeval, 2012. "Job Allocation Rules and Sorting Efficiency: Experimental Outcomes in a Peter Principle Environment," Post-Print halshs-00664665, HAL.

ExpertIdeas (talk) 03:03, 25 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Example source[edit]

I am a layman but I agree with Dr. Villeval that sources need to be quoted. For instance the following parragraph Whom was it proposed by?- because the names chosen are very symptomatic, I mean Cain and Abel (Is it one of the authors' ideas?, if so please quote the source):

"two economic agents—which we call, for example, Abel and Cain—where Abel knows more about himself than Cain knows about Abel. The agents are attempting to engage in some sort of transaction, often involving a long-term relationship, though that qualifier is not necessary. The "screener" (the one with less information, in this case, Cain) attempts to rectify this asymmetry by learning as much as he can about Abel."--187.237.25.61 (talk) 17:52, 29 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Failing the selection process[edit]

Let's say the subject appears to 'fail' the criteria of the selection process. What remains to discern what that subject's actual vocational and life prospects really are which are BOTH socially and personally productive and satisfying? Is there a 'humanistic' strategy to contextualize 'economic screening' according to the description found in this article? I may not be alone in acknowledging a wish to see some future development of this article - or a one-sentence mention within this article of such a development in a different article somewhere. MaynardClark (talk) 18:24, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]