Radicalism or gradualism: the maintenance and collapse of coordination
报告时间：2025年9月17日（星期三）16:00-17:30
报告地点：科教楼B座1005会议室
报告人：韩晓教授
工作单位：北京交通大学
举办单位：经济学院
报告简介：
Coordination is fundamental to effective collaboration in economic, organizational, and societal contexts; however, sustaining it following the withdrawal of costly facilitation mechanisms, such as subsidies, poses a persistent and significant challenge. In this study, we investigate whether coordination behavior can persist once subsidies are withdrawn, and compares two common withdrawal strategies: radicalism (a sudden removal) and gradualism (a stepwise reduction). Using a behavioral laboratory experiment based on the weakest-link stag hunt game, we introduce a partial subsidy to promote coordination and then examine outcomes after removing it through either approach. Our experimental results show that coordination levels remain significantly higher after subsidy removal than in a baseline with no subsidy, suggesting that temporary interventions can have lasting effects. Furthermore, we find that radicalism outperforms gradualism in sustaining coordination, as it prompts a decisive behavioral adjustment and avoids repeated disruptions to belief formation. In contrast, gradualism introduces multiple small shocks that erode coordination beliefs and reduce long-term success. A follow-up experiment with alternative removal schemes confirms the robustness of these findings. Our study offers insights for designing cost-effective and sustainable coordination policies, suggesting that abrupt withdrawal may, counterintuitively, lead to more stable and self-sustaining coordination, supporting the Chinese proverb that “a short, sharp pain is better than a long, dull pain.”
报告人简介：
韩晓，博士，北京交通大学系统科学学院副教授（高聘教授），博士生导师。中国系统工程学会系统理论专委会委员。2012年本科毕业于山东大学，2017年博士毕业于北京师范大学，2017年至2021年在北京交通大学进行博士后研究， 其间于2018年至2021年在美国加州大学戴维斯分校从事博士后研究。主要研究方向为复杂系统理论与方法、复杂交通系统管理、群体博弈行为、人机交互行为。在PNAS、POM、TS、TR-A/B/C、Patterns、Experimental Economics等期刊发表论文30余篇。主持包括国家自然科学基金青年科学基金项目B类、C类、面上项目等。获得北京市自然科学奖二等奖1项。
