Contents:           Research          Teaching         Curriculum Vitae          Other Interests 

Research

My main research concerns how asymmetric information issues may be addressed to enhance efficiency and welfare through coordination. I study informal channels such as cheap-talk communication and reputation; formal schemes such as contracting; and how such devices may complement each other in dynamic environments. Some of my work ventures into more fundamental quests in the areas of game theory and decision theory. Some papers focus on externalities from coordinated actions among agents. Broadly categorized below are my papers into topics with links (black links for published papers and green links for working papers).

Communication / Reputation

• "Selling Information for Bilateral Trade" (with Robert Evans) 2024.   Online Appendix

- This supersedes an earlier working paper entitled "Third-Party Sale of Information."

• "Quid pro Quo: Friendly Information Exchange between Rivals," (with Andreas Blume) Theoretical Economics, 17 (3): 1183–1223 (2022).

• "Coordinating Public Good Provision by Mediated Communication," (with Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka)   American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 13 (2):  311-42 (2021)  Online Appendix

• "Information Transmission through Influence Activities," (with Chongwoo Choe) 2022.

• "Communication, Feedbacks and Repeated Moral Hazard with Short-lived Buyers," (with Bruno Jullien) 2020.   Online Appendix

• "Price signalling differentiated experience goods: are uniform movie prices a puzzle?" (with Joon Song) Korean Economic Review, 37: 85-113 (2021).

• "The Market for Liars: Reputation and Auditor Honesty," (with Andy McLennan) International Journal of Economic Theory, 12: 49-66 (2016, special issue).

• "New, Like New, or Very Good? Reputation and Credibility," (with Bruno Jullien) Review of Economic Studies, 81: 1543-1574 (2014).

- This supersedes an earlier working paper entitled "Seller Reputation and Trust in Pre-Trade Communication."

• "Modelling the Effects of Subjective and Objective Decision Making in Scientific Peer Review," (with Marcus Munafo and Mike Peacey) Nature, 506: Iss. 7486, 93-96 (2014).

• "Cheap Talk Referrals of Differentiated Experts in Repeated Relationship," RAND Journal of Economics, 36: 391-411 (2005).

• "Cheap Talk Coordination of Entry by Privately Informed Firms," RAND Journal of Economics, 33: 377-393 (2002)

Game Theory /  Contract Theory / Decision Theory

• "Continuous-Time Games with Reaction Lag: A Game-Tree Representation," (with Siyang Xiong) 2024. Online Appendix

- This supersedes an earlier working paper entitled "An Extensive-Form Representation of Continuous-Time Games with Reaction Lag."

• "Global Games without Dominance Solvable Games," (with Efthymios Smyrniotis) 2024.

• "An Economic Theory of Glass Ceiling," (with Paul Grout and Silvia Sonderegger) 2011.

• "Information, Authority, and Corporate Hierarchies," (with Chongwoo Choe) B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics: Vol. 11: Iss. 1 (Contributions), Article 2 (2011).

• "Moral Hazard Contracting and Private Credit Markets," Econometrica, 72: 701-746 (2004).

• "Generic 4 x 4 Two Person Games Have At Most 15 Equilibria," (with Andy McLennan) Games and Economic Behavior, 26: 111-130 (1999).

• "A Revealed-Preference Implication of Weighted Utility Decisions under Uncertainty," Economic Theory, 11: 413-426 (1998).

• "Generic Finiteness of Equilibrium Outcome Distributions for Sender-Receiver Cheap-Talk Games," Journal of Economic Theory, 76: 431-448 (1997).

• "Bayes Contingent Plans," (with Ed Green) Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 31: 225-236 (1996, special issue in honor of R. M. Cyert).

Networks / Coalitions

• "Internal Hierarchy and Stable Coalition Structures," (with Massimo Morelli) Games and Economic Behavior, 96: 90-96 (2016).

• "Overcoming the Coordination Problem: Dynamic Formation of Networks," (with Jack Ochs) Journal of Economic Theory, 145: 689-720 (2010).

• "A Simple Inducement Scheme to Overcome Adoption Externalities," B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics: Vol. 4: Iss. 1 (Contributions), Article 3 (2004).

- Reprinted in the ICFAI Journal of Public Finance, India, November, 2004.

• "Promoting Competition in the Presence of Essential Facilities," (with Paul Grout) International Journal of Industrial Organization, 22: 1415-1441 (2004).

Other Topics in Industrial Organization

• "Need-blind College Admissions, Financial Aid  and Student Loan Programs," (with Eun Jeong Heo) 2024.

• "Patent Protection, Startup Takeovers, and Open Innovation," (with Andreas Panagopoulos) International Journal of the Economics of Business, 26: 39-64 (2019).

• "Patents as Negotiating Assets: Patenting versus Secrecy for Startups," (with Andreas Panagopoulos) Economic Journal, 128: 2876-2894 (2018).

• "Anti-Limit Pricing," (with Byoung Heon Jun) Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 51: 57-78 (2010).

• "Competitive Planned Obsolescence," (with Paul Grout) RAND Journal of Economics, 36: 596-612 (2005).

• "The Stock Market Condition and Initial Public Offering Pricing: A Theory and Evidence from the KOSDAQ Stock Market," (with Jongil Kim) Korean Economic Review, 18: 349-371 (2002).

Editorial Services

• Associate Editor for European Economic Review, 2003--2007.

• Editorial Board for B.E. Journals of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2006--2010.