"We develop a model of information exchange through communication and investigate its implications for information … a costly communication link with incurring the associated cost. After receiving a private signal correlated with the … underlying state, they exchange information over the induced communication network until taking an (irreversible) action. We …

This paper studies when introducing verifiable communication choices between agents in a cheap-talk benchmark setting … information improvement and (ii) a negative effect arises from crowding out soft communication with costly verifiable … communication. Surprisingly, the final welfare outcome of the two opposing forces depends on the cost structure. If only one party …