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Censorship as optimal persuasion

Author

Listed:
  • Kolotilin, Anton

    (School of Economics, UNSW Sydney)

  • Mylovanov, Timofiy

    (Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh)

  • Zapechelnyuk, Andriy

    (School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews)

Abstract

We consider a Bayesian persuasion problem where a sender's utility depends only on the expected state. We show that upper censorship that pools the states above a cutoff and reveals the states below the cutoff is optimal for all prior distributions of the state if and only if the sender's marginal utility is quasi-concave. Moreover, we show that it is optimal to reveal less information if the sender becomes more risk averse or the sender's utility shifts to the left. Finally, we apply our results to the problem of media censorship by a government.

Suggested Citation

  • Kolotilin, Anton & Mylovanov, Timofiy & Zapechelnyuk, Andriy, 2022. "Censorship as optimal persuasion," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(2), May.
    • Handle: RePEc:the:publsh:4071
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy Besley & Andrea Prat, 2006. "Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 720-736, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Shipra Agrawal & Yiding Feng & Wei Tang, 2026. "Simple and Robust Quality Disclosure: The Power of Quantile Partition," Papers 2602.01066, arXiv.org.
    2. Kreutzkamp, Sophie & Lou, Yichuan, 2025. "Persuasion without ex-post commitment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    3. Ichihashi, Shota, 2025. "Information and policing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    4. Vellodi, Nikhil, 0. "Ratings design and barriers to entry," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society.
    5. Dongjin Hwang & Ilwoo Hwang, 2025. "Competitive Information Disclosure with Heterogeneous Consumer Search," Papers 2504.04659, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2025.
    6. Francesco Bilotta & Christoph Carnehl & Justus Preusser, 2026. "Delegated Information Provision," Papers 2603.10867, arXiv.org, revised May 2026.
    7. Christoph Carnehl & Anton Sobolev & Konrad Stahl & André Stenzel, 2025. "Designing Vertical Differentiation with Information," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_700, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

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