How About Tomorrow? Optimal Procrastination and the Implications for Delay in Submitting to Conferences

McDonald, Stuart, Beard, Rodney and Purcell, Tim (2000) How About Tomorrow? Optimal Procrastination and the Implications for Delay in Submitting to Conferences. Discussion Paper No. 280, Department of Economics, The University of Queensland.

Attached Files (Some files may be inaccessible until you login with your UQ eSpace credentials)
Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads
econ_dp_280_00.pdf econ_dp_280_00.pdf application/pdf 1.17MB 352
Author McDonald, Stuart
Beard, Rodney
Purcell, Tim
Title How About Tomorrow? Optimal Procrastination and the Implications for Delay in Submitting to Conferences
School, Department or Centre Department of Economics
Institution The University of Queensland
Report Number Discussion Paper No. 280
Publication date 2000-11-01
Subject 349999 Economics not elsewhere classified
Abstract/Summary In these times of academic stress in which one's time budget is a binding constraint, procrastination and delay may be an optimal response to deadlines imposed by conference organizers. We formulate a model of optimal procrastination using optimal stopping theory. Whilst the date of the conference is known and the "soft" deadline is also known by the authors of the paper, the "hard" deadline for the publication of the conference proceedings and program is only known by the organizers. Organizers possess a lower and upper limit on the numbers of participants determined by their budget and the capacity of the conference venue. The authors wold like to submit papers as late as possible subject to these constraints. The question this paper attempts to address is "What is the optimal period of procrastination for the authors?"
Keyword procrastination
delay
conference papers
submission
optimal delay

Document type: Department Technical Report
Collection: Discussion Papers (School of Economics)
 
Versions
Version Filter Type
Citation counts: Google Scholar Search Google Scholar
Access Statistics: 502 Abstract Views, 355 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics
Created: Thu, 10 Jun 2004, 10:00:00 EST by Belinda Weaver (EA)