The Problem of Information Asymmetry
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Markets in Higher Education: Can We Still Learn from Economics' Founding Fathers?* Abstract
Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.4.06 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY http://cshe.berkeley.edu/ MARKETS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: CAN WE STILL LEARN * FROM ECONOMICS’ FOUNDING FATHERS? March 2006 Pedro Nuno Teixeira Assistant Professor of Economics; Research Associate, CEMPRE and CIPES University of Porto and Visiting Scholar, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley Copyright 2006 Pedro Nuno Teixeira, all rights reserved. ABSTRACT Markets or market-like mechanisms are playing an increasing role in higher education, with visible consequences both for the regulation of higher education systems as a whole, as well as for the governance mechanisms of individual institutions. This article traces the history of economists’ views on the role of education, from Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall, and Milton Friedman, to present-day debates about the relevance of market economies to higher education policy. Recent developments in higher education policy reflect both the rising strength of market mechanisms in higher education worldwide, and a certain ambivalence about these developments. The author argues that despite the peculiarities of the higher education sector, economic theory can be a very useful tool for the analysis of the current state of higher education systems and recent trends in higher education policy. Introduction Markets or market-like mechanisms are playing an increasing role in higher education, with visible consequences both for the regulation of higher education (HE) * The author is Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Porto and Research Associate of CEMPRE (Centre for Macroeconomics and Forecasting) and CIPES (Portuguese National Research Centre on Higher Education Policy). -
Information Asymmetry and the Protection of Ordinary Investors
William & Mary Law School William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository Faculty Publications Faculty and Deans 11-2019 Information Asymmetry and the Protection of Ordinary Investors Kevin S. Haeberle William & Mary Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs Part of the Securities Law Commons Repository Citation Haeberle, Kevin S., "Information Asymmetry and the Protection of Ordinary Investors" (2019). Faculty Publications. 1954. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/1954 Copyright c 2019 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs Information Asymmetry and the Protection of Ordinary Investors Kevin S. Haeberle* To some, the reductions in information asymmetry provided by the main securities-specific disclosure, fraud, and insider-trading laws help ordinary investors in meaningful ways. To others, whatever their larger social value, such reductions do little, if anything for these investors. For decades, these two sides of this investor-protection divide have mostly talked past each other. This Article builds on economic theory to reveal something striking: The reductions in information asymmetry provided by the core securities laws likely impose a long-overlooked cost on buy-and-hold ordinary investors. More specifically, I explain why there is much reason to believe that the reductions take away investment return from these investors, while providing them with only limited benefits. Thus, the article presents a serious challenge to conventional wisdom on information asymmetry and the protection of ordinary investors, and argues in favor of a shift in investor-protection efforts away from the main securities laws and to areas of regulation that have received relatively little attention to date. -
Experimental Tests of Self-Selection and Screening in Insurance Decisions
The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, 24: 139–158 (1999) c 1999 The Geneva Association Experimental Tests of Self-Selection and Screening in Insurance Decisions ZUR SHAPIRA Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, NY 10012-1126 [email protected] ITZHAK VENEZIA School of Business, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel [email protected] Abstract A major characteristic of insurance markets is information asymmetry that may lead to phenomena such as adverse selection and moral hazard. Another aspect of markets with asymmetric information is self-selection, which refers to the pattern of choices that individuals with different personal characteristics make when facing a menu of contracts or options. To combat problems of asymmetric information, insurance firms can use screening. That is, they can offer the clients a menu of choices and infer their characteristics from their choices. This article reports the results of several studies that examined the degree to which people behave according to the notions of self-selection and screening. Subjects played the role of either insurance buyers or sellers. The results of these studies provide partial support for the hypothesis that subjects use self-selection and screening in insurance markets. Our study also points at the importance of learning in experimental studies. In one-stage experiments where subjects did not get feedback, screening was not detected. When multistage experiments were conducted, and the subjects learned from experience and were also taught the relevant theories, their decisions were more aligned with screening. Key words: self-selection, screening, information asymmetry, insurance markets 1. Introduction Adverse selection is an incentive problem that emerges from informational asymmetry. -
Asymmetric Information Along the Food Supply Chain: a Review of the Literature
Asymmetric information along the food supply chain: a review of the literature Francesca Minarelli1, Francesco Galioto1, Meri Raggi2, Davide Viaggi1 1Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna 2Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Bologna Abstract Market failure occurs when the market is not able to reach optimal output. In literature, among the main causes of market failure there is asymmetric information. Asymmetric information occurs when parties involved in a transaction are not equally informed. There has been a considerable increase in attention on asymmetric information in economic literature over the last twenty years in several fields, such as agro-environmental scheme payments, food quality and chain relationships. The literature reveals that the agri-food sector represents a field particularly exposed to the effect of asymmetric information. In particular, issues are related on the lack of information on quality, price and safety that frequently occurs in the transactions along the supply chain until the final consumer. Many actions in terms of regulation and policies have been undertaken in order to control attributes in the food transactions, however there is still need to improve conditions in order to achieve a more efficient and competitive market. The purpose of the paper is to review the literature on asymmetric information issues affecting the agri-food chain, the main solutions proposed and the modeling approaches applied in economic literature to understand asymmetric information along the food supply chain. Keywords: Asymmetric Information, food supply chain, contracts 1. Introduction Asymmetric information occurs when parties involved in an economic transaction are not equally informed and does not allow society from enhance the resource first-best allocation. -
An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information
Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2014 An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information Tim Wu Columbia Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Tim Wu, An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information, COLUMBIA LAW & ECONOMICS WORKING PAPER NO. 482; COLUMBIA PUBLIC LAW RESEARCH PAPER NO. 14-399 (2014). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/1863 This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information Tim Wu† Information is an extremely complex phenomenon not fully understood by any branch of learning, yet one of enormous importance to contemporary economics, science, and technology. (Gleick 2012, Pierce 1980). Beginning from the 1970s, economists and legal scholars, relying on a simplified “public good” model of information, have constructed an impressively extensive body of scholarship devoted to the relationship between law and information. The public good model tends to justify law, such as the intellectual property laws or various forms of securities regulation that seek to incentivize the production of information or its broader dissemination. A review of the last several decades of scholarship based on the public choice model suggests the following two trends. First, scholars have extended the public good model of information to an ever-increasing number of fields where law and information intersect. -
Minimizing Asymmetric Information in Online Markets Through Knowledge Management
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE International Journalprovided of Management by International Journal Excellence of Management Excellence (IJME) Volume 8 No.2 February 2017 Minimizing Asymmetric Information in Online Markets through Knowledge Management Khalil Ahmed Arbi1*,Dr. Abdul Rashid Kausar2,Imran Salim3 School of Professional Advancement, University of Management and Technology Lahore Pakistan1,2&3 [email protected] *Corresponding author Abstract- This article is about the role of knowledge management in minimizing the asymmetric information in online business. The asymmetry of information is the prime concern in online markets where consumer and seller are located in distant locations and they cannot see each other. The success of ecommerce business depends heavily on the minimization of asymmetric information between the seller and buyers. As the online business is done through codified knowledge and it is easy to manage the codified knowledge so by efficient use of KM principles and processes it has now become easy to minimize the asymmetric information among the seller and buyers. The article discusses the types of asymmetric information which can ne be minimized through use of codified online knowledge. Key Words- Asymmetric Information; E-business; Ecommerce; Knowledge Management; Information System 1. INTRODUCTION knowledge has now taken as source of sustained competitive advantage (Carlos Bou-Llusar & Segarra- Knowledge Management is an emerging field and is Ciprés, 2006)[10]. Organizations around the world are heavily discussed in the business context for its use in the giving adequate attention to the management of their organizational setting to be more competitive and knowledge resources (Bowles, 1985)[9]. -
Asymmetric Information 21
Asymmetric Information 21 Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, students should be able to: } Understand how adverse selection impacts markets. } Explain the concepts of signaling and screening. } Understand the implications of competitive signaling and screening for resource allocation, and identify implications for government policy. } Explain how moral hazard can impact a trading relationship. } Describe how an incentive scheme can provide a trading partner with incentives to take favorable actions, and some of the potential prob- lems with providing incentives. uring the fi nal quarter of 2001, a series of revelations concerning widespread accounting fraud sent Enron Corporation, a highly diversifi ed energy conglomer- Date and once one of the most respected and successful companies in the United States, spiraling toward the largest bankruptcy in history. The value of the company’s outstanding stock, valued at roughly $65 billion in August 2000, dwindled to practically nothing over the course of a few turbulent weeks (see Add-On 2A). Yet even as the crisis deepened, Enron’s management still held out hope that it could save the company through a merger with Dynegy, another prominent energy conglomerate. According to reports in early November 2001, Dynegy was negotiating to purchase Enron for $7 to $8 bil- lion in stock, and to provide an immediate cash infusion of $1.5 billion to alleviate the short-term crisis. As November progressed, disturbing facts concerning Enron continued to surface. On November 28, Dynegy walked away -
Essays on Information Asymmetry in Financial Market
The London School of Economics and Political Science Essays on Information Asymmetry in Financial Market Shiyang Huang A thesis submitted to the Department of Finance of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London. September 2014 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Statement of Conjoint Work I confirm that Chapter 2 "Investment Waves under Cross Learning" is jointly co-authored with Mr.Yao Zeng from Economic Department at Harvard University, and I contributed 50% of this work. 2 Abstract I study how asymmetric information affects the financial market in three papers. In the first paper, I study the joint determination of optimal contracts and equilibrium asset prices in an economy with multiple principal-agent pairs. Principals design optimal contracts that provide incentives for agents to acquire costly information. With agency problems, the agents' compensation depends on the accuracy of their forecasts for asset prices and payoffs. -
The Role of Information Asymmetry in the Choice of Entrepreneurial Exit Routes
JBV-05646; No of Pages 17 Journal of Business Venturing xxx (2012) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Business Venturing The role of information asymmetry in the choice of entrepreneurial exit routes Tobias Dehlen, Thomas Zellweger ⁎, Nadine Kammerlander, Frank Halter Center for Family Business, University of St. Gallen, Dufourstrasse 40a, CH-9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland article info abstract Article history: Our quantitative study investigates the determinants of internal versus external exit routes in Received 21 March 2012 family firms. Building on information asymmetry theory, we examine how an owner's inferior Received in revised form 4 October 2012 knowledge about the abilities of potential external entrants (in contrast to family internal Accepted 4 October 2012 successors) renders a family internal transfer more likely. This information asymmetry, however, Available online xxxx can be mitigated by activities such as owners' screening and transfer candidates' signaling efforts to reveal the candidates' abilities. Our data exhibits a positive effect of signaling and an inverted Field Editor: D. Shepherd U-shaped effect of screening on the probability of external exit routes. Firm age, as a driver of emotional attachment, weakens these effects. Keywords: © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Entrepreneurial exit Exit routes Succession Information asymmetry Emotional attachment 1. Executive summary The transfer of ownership and management from an incumbent entrepreneur to his or her successor is an important and often studied phenomenon. Prior literature (Wennberg et al., 2011) shows that the choice of exit route is highly influential on the future firm prosperity. Thus far, we still lack a comprehensive understanding and quantitative evidence about what factors determine to whom the entrepreneur transfers the business. -
Pure and Hybrid Crowds in Crowdfunding Markets
A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Chen, Liang; Huang, Zihong; Liu, De Article Pure and hybrid crowds in crowdfunding markets Financial Innovation Provided in Cooperation with: SpringerOpen Suggested Citation: Chen, Liang; Huang, Zihong; Liu, De (2016) : Pure and hybrid crowds in crowdfunding markets, Financial Innovation, ISSN 2199-4730, Springer, Heidelberg, Vol. 2, Iss. 19, pp. 1-18, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40854-016-0038-5 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/176430 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten -
1 the Symmetry Assumption in Transaction Costs Approach And
The Symmetry Assumption in Transaction Costs Approach And Symmetry Breaking in Evolutionary Thermodynamics of Division of Labor Ping Chen China Center for Economic Research at Peking University in Beijing, China [email protected] http://pchen.ccer.edu.cn/ And Center for Political Economy at Fudan University in Shanghai, China Draft: June 30, 2007 Abstract Coase raised fundamental questions on the firm nature and market solution for social conflicts. However, confusion was around the symmetric intonation of transaction costs, the ill-formulated Coase Theorem, and the false analogy in physics. Fundamental issues in the transaction costs approach can be elaborated by the symmetry assumption in equilibrium economics and symmetry breaking in evolutionary dynamics. The Coasian belief of decreasing transaction costs by market competition is against historical experiences of the division of labor and basic law in thermodynamics. The creative nature of the firm and selective role of institution can be understood by Maxwell’s demon of living boundaries and increasing complexity in industrial economy. Key Words: transaction costs, Coase Theorem, symmetry principle, symmetry breaking, evolutionary thermodynamics I. Introduction: Inspiration and confusion surround the concept of transaction costs. Under the term “Coase theorem” in the Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and Law, the article began with a startling question (De Meza 1998): “Is this statement (Coase Theorem) profound, trivial, a tautology, false, revolutionary, wicked? Each of these has been claimed.” There are three sources of confusion concerning the Coase theory. First, Coase himself never gave a clear definition of transaction costs and a rigorous statement of the Coase theorem. Therefore, different interpretations generated conflicting implications. -
A New Logistic Model of Market Information Asymmetry Reduction in Poland
logistics Article A New Logistic Model of Market Information Asymmetry Reduction in Poland Elzbieta˙ Gołembska Department Finance and Banking, WSB University of Poznanul, Powstancow Wielkopolskich 5, 61-895 Poznan, Poland; [email protected] Abstract: The article presents the first theoretical and empirical estimation of the role of logistics in mitigating the effects of market information asymmetry in Poland. Following a review of international (Akerlof, Spencer, Stiglitz) and Polish literature (Gołembska, Gruszecki, Stradomski), a new logistic model of information asymmetry (LMAI) is presented. The article attempts an empirical verification of this model using the results of studies conducted in Polish firms in the period 2000–2018. The studies examined the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics management, with a particular focus on logistics infrastructure expenditure, balance-sheet inventories, and logistics costs. The computation of the LMAI indicator, based on averaged data provided by manufacturers, distributors and service firms, enabled the estimation of the impact of logistics management on reducing the effects of information asymmetry, and showed the differences of this impact in individual industries including the pharmaceutical, tourist, transport and food distribution industry. Keywords: logistic model of information asymmetry; sources of information asymmetry; transaction costs; logistics infrastructure; logistics costs; logistification; strategic alliances; internationalization; transnational corporations 1. Introduction Citation: Gołembska, E. A New The importance of logistics in international business derives not only from its in- Logistic Model of Market Information terdisciplinary nature, but also from the fact that it has the potential to contribute to a Asymmetry Reduction in Poland. company’s success. What is more, a new concept known as “logistification” (Fabbe-Costes Logistics 2021, 5, 5.