Who does, and who should initiate costly certification by a third party under asymmetric quality information, the buyer …--induced certification acts as an inspection device, whence seller--induced certification acts as a signalling device. Seller …--induced certification maximizes the certifier's profit and social welfare. This suggests the general principle that certification is, and …

liquidity and certification agencies to become aggressive competitors in a new speculative grade market. …

uncertain of their quality at the time of hiring a certification intermediary and if the decision to get a rating is not …

convince consumers of the high quality of its products. Alternatively, a firm can rely on external certification of the quality … external certification. We also show that the potential to signal quality is improved if consumers condition their beliefs on … the source of information, namely whether information comes from external certification or from random detection. …