Accuracy versus Falsification Costs: The Optimal Amount of Evidence under Different Procedures

Abstract

An arbiter can decide a case on the basis of his priors or he can ask for further evidence from the two parties to the conflict. The parties may misrepresent evidence in their favor at a cost. The arbiter is concerned about accuracy and low procedural costs. When both parties testify, each of them distorts the evidence less than when they testify alone. When the fixed cost of testifying is low, the arbiter hears both, for intermediate values one, and for high values no party at all. The arbiter's ability to remain uninformed as well as sequential testifying makes it more likely that the arbiter requires evidence. (JEL D82, K41, K42)

Strategic information revelation when experts compete to influence

“…Although several authors have studied the issue of eliciting private information from competing experts (Milgrom and Roberts, ; Shin, , ; Emons and Fluet, ; Kamenica and Gentzkow, ; Gentzkow and Kamenica, ; Gul and Pesendorfer, ), the extant literature has little to say about the link between the extent of conflict among the experts and the quality of decision‐making. This article attempts to bridge this gap.…”

The optimal amount of distorted testimony when the arbiter can and cannot commit

“…Choosing the best adjudication "rule" amounts to picking the best equilibrium in terms of minimizing submission costs. In Emons and Fluet (2009) we show that the linear strategy described in the text does indeed characterize the best sequential equilibrium. Hence, in the no commitment case the linearity assumption plays no role.…”

“…Closest to the paper at hand are our papers Fluet (2009 and2011). In Emons and Fluet (2009) we also study the inquisitorial procedure.…”

Non-Comparative versus Comparative Advertising of Quality

“…Hence, they believe that the true differential is x solving σ 1 (x) = z 1 . A similar refinement, which we call the minimality condition, has been used by Bagwell and Ramey (1991), Schultz (1999), and Emons and Fluet (2009).…”