Sequential Voting, Deliberation, and Peer Effects in FDA Advisory Committees

• In Event: Following the Leaders? The Impact of Dynamic Individuals

Abstract

Deliberation is an integral component of collective decision-making across many political and institutional settings. In deliberative processes, individuals have the opportunity to communicate their views on an issue and provide information that can influence the decisions of the next voter, and so forth. Using sequential voting procedures in FDA advisory committees, I examine whether and when advisory committee votes exhibit herding as a committee member accumulates more information on the views of peers. Moreover, I use text-based data to explore how the conduct of deliberation affects the tendency for members to conform to their peers.

Author

• Andrew Tony Saab, Northwestern University