This paper studies the effect of disclosing conflicts of interests on strategic communication when the sender has lying costs. I present a simple economic channel under which such disclosure often leads to more biased messages. This hurts receivers who are naive or delegate their choice while...

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