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Andrzej Skrzypacz Publications

Publish Date
Abstract

We analyze price transparency in a dynamic market with private information and correlated values. Uninformed buyers compete inter- and intra-temporarily for a good sold by an informed seller suffering a liquidity shock. We contrast public versus private price offers. In a two-period case all equilibria with private offers have more trade than any equilibrium with public offers; under some additional conditions we show Pareto-dominance of the private-offers equilibria. If a failure to trade by the deadline results in an efficiency loss, public offers can induce a market breakdown before the deadline, while trade never stops with private offers.

Abstract

An Agent who owns information that is potentially valuable to a Firm bargains for its sale, without commitment and certification possibilities, short of disclosing it. We propose a model of gradual persuasion and show how gradualism helps mitigate the hold-up problem (that the Firm would not pay once it learns the information). An example illustrates how it is optimal to give away part of the information at the beginning of the bargaining, and sell the remainder in dribs and drabs. The Agent can only appropriate part of the value of information. Introducing a third-party allows her to extract the maximum surplus.