Inter-firm information exchange as to the reliability of trade partners supports the development of markets by mitigating information asymmetries and providing the basis for relational contracting. While this general point has been made in a variety of contexts, most of the literature analyzes...

Inter-firm information exchange with respect to the reliability of trade partners may be unmediated in the sense that it involves direct communication between the personnel of two firms. Alternatively, this information flow may be channeled by or through an organization such as a trade...