Hal responds to my claim:
>> Most situations in which a secret gives someone an advantage, it is at
>> someone else's expense. If they were consulted before the secret
>> info was generated, both sides would typically prefer some other
>> arrangement, without secrets.
>
>Could you elaborate on this? What is the basis for the conclusion that
>most secrecy could be eliminated and leave both sides better off?
When people model social situations to look for their essense, often
info asymmetries are an important element. When these models consider
variations that eliminate these asymmetries, for example by committing
to choices before the info is generated, both sides can typically be
better off.
I could probably give a better intuition why this is so, but don't have
time to at the moment.
Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/
RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-8614
Received on Mon May 18 23:37:07 1998
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