论文标题
筛选和信息共享外部性
Screening and Information-Sharing Externalities
论文作者
论文摘要
在许多设置中,多个不知情的代理人在多个时期中的每个时期都与单个知情代理人同时讨价还价。例如,工人和公司每年就薪水进行谈判,该公司拥有有关工人产出价值的私人信息。我研究这些环境中透明度的影响;不知情的代理商可能会观察到他人过去的讨价还价结果,例如工资。我表明,在平衡中,每个不知情的代理人在每个时期都会选择是否尝试分开知情代理的类型(屏幕)或接收相同的结果,而不论其类型(池)。换句话说,代理商通过谈判策略进行了一种实验形式。有两个主要的理论见解。首先,有一种互补的筛选效果:平衡中的代理屏幕越多,每个人都必须支付的信息租金就越低。其次,知情人的收益将具有一定的超模型财产,这意味着与筛查的平衡对未知代理人的偏差“脆弱”。我将结果应用于研究薪酬法规和反歧视政策。我表明,令人惊讶的是,薪酬歧视的处罚对讨价还价结果没有影响。我讨论了该结果如何取决于歧视案件的法律框架,并建议更改以增强反歧视法规的疗效。特别是,反歧视法应排除所谓的“工资谈判辩护”。
In many settings, multiple uninformed agents bargain simultaneously with a single informed agent in each of multiple periods. For example, workers and firms negotiate each year over salaries, and the firm has private information about the value of workers' output. I study the effects of transparency in these settings; uninformed agents may observe others' past bargaining outcomes, e.g. wages. I show that in equilibrium, each uninformed agent will choose in each period whether to try to separate the informed agent's types (screen) or receive the same outcome regardless of type (pool). In other words, the agents engage in a form of experimentation via their bargaining strategies. There are two main theoretical insights. First, there is a complementary screening effect: the more agents screen in equilibrium, the lower the information rents that each will have to pay. Second, the payoff of the informed agent will have a certain supermodularity property, which implies that equilibria with screening are "fragile" to deviations by uninformed agents. I apply the results to study pay-secrecy regulations and anti-discrimination policy. I show that, surprisingly, penalties for pay discrimination have no impact on bargaining outcomes. I discuss how this result depends on the legal framework for discrimination cases, and suggest changes to enhance the efficacy of anti-discrimination regulations. In particular, anti-discrimination law should preclude the so-called "salary negotiation defense".