Should principals explain and justify their evaluations? Suppose the principal's evaluation is private information, but she can provide justication by sending a costly cheap-talk message. If she does not provide justication, her message space is restricted, but the message is costless. I show...

Most insurance companies publish few data on the occurrence and detection of insurance fraud. This stands in contrast to the previous literature on costly state verification, which has shown that it is optimal to commit to an auditing strategy, as the credible announcement of thoroughly auditing...

I show that legal uncertainty, i.e., uncertainty about the legality of a specific action, has positive welfare effects. Legal uncertainty works as a screening device provided that the threshold of legality is uncertain. The uncertainty discourages controversial actions, while it encourages...