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Competitive cheap talk

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Zhuozheng
  • Rantakari, Heikki
  • Yang, Huanxing

Abstract

We study a competitive cheap talk model with two senders. Each sender is responsible for a single project and observes its return. Exactly one project will be implemented. Both senders share some common interests with the principal, but have own-project biases. Under simultaneous communication, all equilibria are shown to be partition equilibria, but all the equilibria can no longer be ranked ex ante in terms of Pareto efficiency. The payoff of the principal depends on both the total conflict between the agents and the asymmetry in the own-project biases. In the equilibrium preferred by the principal, the agent with a smaller bias always has veto power to determine which alternative is implemented and weakly more messages. In any given equilibrium, decreasing the own-project bias of one agent improves the precision of communication by both agents. Finally, sequential communication and simple delegation are shown to be essentially outcome-equivalent to simultaneous communication.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Zhuozheng & Rantakari, Heikki & Yang, Huanxing, 2016. "Competitive cheap talk," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 65-89.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:96:y:2016:i:c:p:65-89
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2016.01.010
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    Cited by:

    1. Arnold Polanski & Mark Quement, 2023. "The battle of opinion: dynamic information revelation by ideological senders," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 52(2), pages 463-483, June.
    2. Chloe Tergiman & Marie Claire Villeval, 2023. "The Way People Lie in Markets: Detectable vs. Deniable Lies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3340-3357, June.
    3. Antić, Nemanja & Persico, Nicola, 2023. "Equilibrium selection through forward induction in cheap talk games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 299-310.
    4. Schmidbauer, Eric, 2019. "Budget selection when agents compete," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 255-268.
    5. Chloe Tergiman & Marie Claire Villeval, 2019. "The Way People Lie in Markets," Working Papers 1927, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    6. Zhuozheng Li & Huanxing Yang & Lan Zhang, 2019. "Pre-communication in a coordination game with incomplete information," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 48(1), pages 109-141, March.
    7. Hiromasa Ogawa, 2021. "Receiver’s sensitivity and strategic information transmission in multi-sender cheap talk," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 50(1), pages 215-239, March.
    8. Schmidbauer, Eric, 2017. "Multi-period competitive cheap talk with highly biased experts," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 240-254.
    9. Venkatesh, Raghul S, 2017. "Cheap Talk with Strategic Substitutability," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 31, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    10. Eric Schmidbauer, 2016. "Multi-period competitive cheap talk with very biased experts," Working Papers 2016-04, University of Central Florida, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cheap talk; Multiple senders; Competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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