We consider a market where privately informed sellers resort to certification to overcome adverse selection. There is … U-shaped function of his reputation for accuracy: being perceived as more precise allows to attract more good sellers … but a high expected precision also deters bad sellers. Since the certifier tries to reach a balanced reputation to attract …

In a market where sellers solicit certification to overcome asymmetric information, we show that the profit of a … monopolistic certifier can be hump-shaped in its reputation for accuracy: a higher accuracy attracts high-quality sellers but … one certifier, competition plays a disciplining role and the region where reputation is bad shrinks. Conversely, this …