Ex post information rents and disclosure in sequential screening

Krähmer, Daniel and Strausz, Roland (9. August 2013): Ex post information rents and disclosure in sequential screening. SFB/TR 15 Discussion Paper No. 406

Abstract

We study ex post information rents in sequential screening models where the agent receives private ex ante and ex post information. The principal has to pay ex post information rents for preventing the agent to coordinate lies about his ex ante and ex post information. When the agent’s ex ante information is discrete, these rents are positive, whereas they are zero in continuous models. Consequently, full disclosure of ex post information is generally suboptimal. Optimal disclosure rules trade off the benefits from adapting the allocation to better information against the effect that more information aggravates truth-telling.

• Item Type: Paper
• Form of publication: Preprint
• Keywords: information rents, sequential screening, information disclosure
• Faculties: Special Research Fields > Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems; Special Research Fields > Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems > A7 - Auktionen, Anreizprobleme und Wettbewerb
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• JEL Classification: D82, H57
• Language: English