COWLES FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH IN
ECONOMICS Box 208281
COWLES FOUNDATION DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 1743RR SELLING INFORMATION Johannes Hörner and Andrzej Skrzypacz December 2009 An Agent who owns information that is potentially valuable to a Firm
bargains for its sale, without commitment and certification possibilities, short of
disclosing it. We propose a model of gradual persuasion and show how gradualism helps
mitigate the hold-up problem (that the Firm would not pay once it learns the information).
An example illustrates how it is optimal to give away part of the information at the
beginning of the bargaining, and sell the remainder in dribs and drabs. The Agent can only
appropriate part of the value of information. Introducing a third-party allows her to
extract the maximum surplus. |
