Endogenous Quality in Social Learning

Georgy Lukyanov, Konstantin Shamruk and Ekaterina Logina
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Georgy Lukyanov: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Konstantin Shamruk: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Ekaterina Logina: HSE - Higher School of Economics [Perm] - MAI - National research university

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Abstract: We study a dynamic reputation model with a fixed posted price where only pur-chases are public. A long-lived seller chooses costly quality; each buyer observes the purchase history and a private signal. Under a Markov selection, beliefs split into two cascades—where actions are unresponsive and investment is zero—and an interior region where the seller invests. The policy is inverse-U in reputation and produces two patterns: Early Resolution (rapid absorption at the optimistic cascade) and Dou-ble Hump (two investment episodes). Higher signal precision at fixed prices enlarges cascades and can reduce investment. We compare welfare and analyze two design levers: flexible pricing, which can keep actions informative and remove cascades for patient sellers, and public outcome disclosure, which makes purchases more informa-tive and expands investment.

Keywords: Product quality; Dynamic games.; Informational cascades; Social learning; Reputation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10-17
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