Theoretical Economics

Journal of the Econometric Society

Edited by: Federico Echenique • ISSN (e): 1555-7561 • ISSN (print): 1933-6837

Theoretical Economics: May, 2021, Volume 16, Issue 2

Communication with forgetful liars

https://doi.org/10.3982/TE4154
p. 605-638

Philippe Jehiel

I consider multi-round cheap talk communication environments in which, after a lie, the informed party has no memory of the content of the lie. I characterize the equilibria with forgetful liars in such settings assuming that a liar's expectation about his past lie coincides with the equilibrium distribution of lies aggregated over all possible realizations of the states. The approach is used to shed light on when the
full truth is almost surely elicited, and when multiple lies can arise in equilibrium. Elaborations are proposed to shed light on why non-trivial communication protocols
are used in criminal investigations.


Full Content