Market distortions and government transparency

In this paper, we investigate how government transparency depends on economic distortions. We first consider an abstract class of economies in which a benevolent policy maker is privately informed about the exogenous state of the economy and contemplates whether to release this information. Our key...

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Main Authors: Albornoz, Facundo, Esteban, Joan, Vanin, Paolo
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2014
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35635/
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author Albornoz, Facundo
Esteban, Joan
Vanin, Paolo
author_facet Albornoz, Facundo
Esteban, Joan
Vanin, Paolo
author_sort Albornoz, Facundo
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In this paper, we investigate how government transparency depends on economic distortions. We first consider an abstract class of economies in which a benevolent policy maker is privately informed about the exogenous state of the economy and contemplates whether to release this information. Our key result is that distortions limit communication: even if transparency is ex ante Pareto superior to opaqueness, it cannot constitute an equilibrium when distortions are sufficiently high. We next confirm this broad insight in two applied contexts, in which monopoly power and income taxes are the specific sources of distortions. (JEL: D82, E61)
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spelling nottingham-356352020-05-04T16:40:47Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35635/ Market distortions and government transparency Albornoz, Facundo Esteban, Joan Vanin, Paolo In this paper, we investigate how government transparency depends on economic distortions. We first consider an abstract class of economies in which a benevolent policy maker is privately informed about the exogenous state of the economy and contemplates whether to release this information. Our key result is that distortions limit communication: even if transparency is ex ante Pareto superior to opaqueness, it cannot constitute an equilibrium when distortions are sufficiently high. We next confirm this broad insight in two applied contexts, in which monopoly power and income taxes are the specific sources of distortions. (JEL: D82, E61) Wiley 2014-02-01 Article PeerReviewed Albornoz, Facundo, Esteban, Joan and Vanin, Paolo (2014) Market distortions and government transparency. Journal of the European Economic Association, 12 (1). pp. 200-222. ISSN 1542-4766 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeea.12052/abstract doi:10.1111/jeea.12052 doi:10.1111/jeea.12052
spellingShingle Albornoz, Facundo
Esteban, Joan
Vanin, Paolo
Market distortions and government transparency
title Market distortions and government transparency
title_full Market distortions and government transparency
title_fullStr Market distortions and government transparency
title_full_unstemmed Market distortions and government transparency
title_short Market distortions and government transparency
title_sort market distortions and government transparency
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35635/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35635/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35635/