Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation

We study contracting between a consumer and an expert in a credence goods model when (i) the expert's choice of diagnosis effort is not observable, (ii) the expert might misrepresent his private information about the adequate treatment, and (iii) payments can depend only on the consumer’s subje...

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Main Authors: Bester, Helmut, Dahm, Matthias
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38969/
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author Bester, Helmut
Dahm, Matthias
author_facet Bester, Helmut
Dahm, Matthias
author_sort Bester, Helmut
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We study contracting between a consumer and an expert in a credence goods model when (i) the expert's choice of diagnosis effort is not observable, (ii) the expert might misrepresent his private information about the adequate treatment, and (iii) payments can depend only on the consumer’s subjective evaluation of treatment success. We show that the first--best solution can always be implemented if the parties' discount factor is equal to one; a decrease in the discount factor makes obtaining the first--best more difficult. The first--best is also always implementable if separation of diagnosis and treatment is possible.
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spelling nottingham-389692020-05-04T19:43:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38969/ Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation Bester, Helmut Dahm, Matthias We study contracting between a consumer and an expert in a credence goods model when (i) the expert's choice of diagnosis effort is not observable, (ii) the expert might misrepresent his private information about the adequate treatment, and (iii) payments can depend only on the consumer’s subjective evaluation of treatment success. We show that the first--best solution can always be implemented if the parties' discount factor is equal to one; a decrease in the discount factor makes obtaining the first--best more difficult. The first--best is also always implementable if separation of diagnosis and treatment is possible. Wiley 2018-06-30 Article PeerReviewed Bester, Helmut and Dahm, Matthias (2018) Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation. Economic Journal, 128 (611). pp. 1367-1394. ISSN 1468-0297 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12472/full doi:10.1111/ecoj.12472 doi:10.1111/ecoj.12472
spellingShingle Bester, Helmut
Dahm, Matthias
Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
title Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
title_full Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
title_fullStr Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
title_full_unstemmed Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
title_short Credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
title_sort credence goods, costly diagnosis, and subjective evaluation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38969/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38969/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38969/