Cheap Talk and Editorial Control

Abstract

This paper analyzes simple models of editorial control. Starting from the framework developed by Krishna and Morgan (2001a), we analyze 2-sender models of cheap talk where one or more of the senders has the power to veto messages before they reach the receiver. A characterization of the most informative equilibria of such models is given. It is shown that editorial control never aids communication and that for small biases in the senders' preferences relative to those of the receiver, necessary and sufficient conditions for information transmission to be adversely affected are (i) that the senders have opposed preferences relative to the receiver, and (ii) that both senders have powers of editorial control. It is shown that the addition of further senders beyond two weakly decreases information transmission when senders exercising editorial control are anonymous, and weakly increases information transmission when senders exercising editorial control are observed.

On the optimality of diverse expert panels in persuasion games

“…The testing technology is the same for both experts. If the data is good, the probability that the 6 For other instances of this result (i.e., increased diversity between senders leads to a less informative outcome), see Banerjee and Somanathan (2001) and Newton (2014). However, the mechanisms driving this result in these articles are very different from ours.…”