Document de travail

Reputational Conservatism in Expert Advice

Georgy Lukyanov et Anna Vlasova

Résumé

We develop a tractable career–concerns model of expert recommendations with a continuous private signal. In equilibrium, advice obeys a cutoff rule: the expert recommends the risky option if and only if the signal exceeds a threshold. Under a mild relative–diagnosticity condition, the threshold is (weakly) increasing in reputation, yielding reputational conservatism. Signal informativeness and success priors lower the cutoff, while stronger career concerns raise it. A success–contingent bonus implements any target experimentation rate via a one–to–one mapping, providing an implementable design lever.

Mots-clés

career concerns; expert advice; reputational incentives; information design; experimentation;

Codes JEL

  • D82: Asymmetric and Private Information • Mechanism Design
  • D83: Search • Learning • Information and Knowledge • Communication • Belief
  • C72: Noncooperative Games

Référence

Georgy Lukyanov et Anna Vlasova, « Reputational Conservatism in Expert Advice », TSE Working Paper, n° 26-1715, février 2026.

Voir aussi

Publié dans

TSE Working Paper, n° 26-1715, février 2026