Are People Sometimes Too Honest? Increasing, Decreasing, and Negative Returns to Honesty

C-Tier
Journal: Southern Economic Journal
Year: 2000
Volume: 67
Issue: 1
Pages: 139-154

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We show that sender honesty can hurt receivers in simple signaling games. The receiver faces a trade‐off between its ability to work with senders and the quality of information it can get and use from them. Our example also contradicts recent work suggesting that returns to honesty should be increasing. Positive, increasing returns are restored in our model if the receiver can precommit.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:wly:soecon:v:67:y:2000:i:1:p:139-154
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24