
Sam Kapon [CV]
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University
Research Fields: Microeconomic theory, Experimental economics
Contact me at [kapon@nyu.edu]
In Fall 2023, I will join the BPP group at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley as an assistant professor.
Job Market Paper
Persuasion in Evidentiary Mechanisms
Abstract
A primary method of collecting evidence against a group of misbehaving agents (e.g., a cartel) is to offer whistleblower rewards to agents who come forward with evidence. But even before a whistleblower comes forward, the regulator typically possesses her own private evidence, though it may not guarantee conviction in court. This paper studies how revealing this private evidence to group members can facilitate whistleblowing. The more damning the regulator's evidence, the more incentivized, all else equal, a whistleblower is to come forward. I formalize this environment using information design in games. A principal (sender) informs two agents (receivers), about a state (the evidence state) that affects the payoffs to whistleblowing. I first ask, if agents can communicate amongst themselves, can the principal improve over public communication with the group? I answer the question in the affirmative, and provide conditions under which the principal's value is independent of whether agents can communicate or not. Second, interpreting the evidence state as the probability of conviction without a whistleblower, I characterize optimal outcomes and show that the likelihood of whistleblowing is increasing in this probability. I show that the principal can facilitate more whistleblowing in groups with more asymmetrically distributed gains from misbehavior across agents. Finally, I show that there are simple information structures that, though potentially sub-optimal, robustly improve over public communication.
Published and Accepted Papers
Dynamic Amnesty Programs [online appendix]
American Economic Review, 2022
Prior-Free Dynamic Allocation Under Limited Liability
with
Sylvain Chassang,
Theoretical Economics, 2022
Working Papers and Work in Progress
Using Divide and Conquer to Improve Tax Collection [supplementary materials]
with
Sylvain Chassang and Lucia Del Carpio,
R&R, Quarterly Journal of Economics
Hard and Soft Information in Repeated Interaction: An Experiment
with
Guillaume Fréchette
Working Memory and Cooperation
with
Guillaume Fréchette and Emanuel Vespa
Transparency in Delegated Decision-Making
with
Paula Onuchic
White Papers (Non-Research)
Designing Randomized Controlled Trials with External Validity in Mind
with
Sylvain Chassang