Monotone persuasion

We explore when it is optimal for senders to commit to signal structures which induce the receiver to take higher actions when the underlying state is higher and the preferences of the receiver satisfy strategic complementarity conditions. Building on the literature on monotone comparative statics, we provide sufficient conditions for the sender's optimal signal structure consists of a monotone partition of the state space, and characterize the boundary conditions. When the action space is binary, it is optimal to use a monotone partition if the sender's preferences are supermodular in the action and the state. In the case of a continuum of actions, though, one must take into account the additional effect that altering the receiver's posteriors also affect her choice. We provide a new single-crossing condition that takes account of this effect, and guarantees monotonicity given appropriate conditions on the cost of implementing the signal structure. If it is costless to provide information, it will be optimal for the sender to reveal all information. Applications are provided to preference disagreement with biases, as well as to expected revenue maximization

On the existence of monotone pure-strategy perfect Bayesian equilibrium in games with complementarities

Many important economic situations can be modelled as dynamic games of incomplete information with strategic complementarities of actions and types. Of special interest is the question of the existence of a perfect Bayesian equilibrium in which actions are monotonic in types. In this paper, we extend the results of Athey (2001) and Reny (2011) from static Bayesian games to dynamic environments, providing conditions that guarantee the existence of monotone equilibria. Specifically, we define a belief mapping which pins down beliefs over types at any subgame, thereby allowing for the translation of the dynamic game into a static one and an extension of previous results. Difficulties arise when attempting to extend to a continuum of actions due to belief entanglement, which does not occur in the static environment, making extensions to a continuum of actions possible only under stronger conditions. We also provide conditions which guarantee that there will exist monotone best-replies to monotone strategies of one's opponents in a dynamic environment. Applications are given to signalling games and stopping games such as auctions

Monopoly, Product Quality, and Flexible Learning

A seller offers a buyer a schedule of transfers and associated product qualities, as in Mussa and Rosen (1978). After observing this schedule, the buyer chooses a flexible costly signal about his type. We show it is without loss to focus on a class of mechanisms that compensate the buyer for his learning costs. Using these mechanisms, we prove the quality always lies strictly below the efficient level. This strict downward distortion holds even if the buyer acquires no information or when the buyer's posterior type is the highest possible given his signal, reversing the "no distortion at the top" feature that holds when information is exogenous

Health care-seeking practices of pregnant women and the role of the midwife in Cape Town, South Africa.

The objective of this study was to investigate the health-seeking practices of pregnant women in a periurban area in Cape Town, South Africa. This qualitative study was based on 103 minimally structured in-depth interviews of 32 pregnant women. Most women were interviewed on several occasions, and a group discussion was held with women. The interviews were taped, transcribed, analyzed ethnographically, and, if necessary, translated into English. Antenatal care attendance was influenced by a number of factors, including women's knowledge of the role of antenatal care, perceived health needs, booking systems, nurse-patient relationships, economics, child care, and transport. The expected benefits were weighed against the anticipated costs before decisions about seeking care were made. The findings highlight the importance of women's perceptions of quality of care in influencing their health seeking practices. The study suggests that considerably more attention needs to be given to this aspect of maternity services