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Memory And Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Sergey Kovbasyuk

    (New Economic School)

  • Giancarlo Spagnolo

    (SITE-Stockholm School of Economics, EIEF, Tor Vergata & CEPR)

Abstract

In many environments, including credit and online markets, past records about participants are collected, published, and erased after some time. We study the effects of erasing past records in a dynamic market where sellers' quality follows a Markov process and buyers leave feedback about sellers to an information intermediary. When the average quality of sellers is low, unlimited records lead to a market breakdown in the long run. We consider the general information design problem and characterize information policies that can sustain trade and that maximize welfare. These policies hide some information from the market in order to foster socially desirable experimentation. We show that these outcomes can be implemented by appropriately deleting observable past records. Crucially, positive and negative records play opposite roles with different intensity and must have different length: negative records must be sufficiently long, and positive records sufficiently short.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergey Kovbasyuk & Giancarlo Spagnolo, 2021. "Memory And Markets," Working Papers w0284, New Economic School (NES).
    • Handle: RePEc:abo:neswpt:w0284
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    File URL: https://www.nes.ru/files/Preprints-resh/WP284.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D53 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Financial Markets
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K35 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Personal Bankruptcy Law
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality

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