with P González and N Porteiro, Journal of Public Economics, 2018, DOI

The most recent unpublished version is here: DahmEtAlEnforcementDisclosure (August 2018).

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This paper examines the incentives of firms to invest in information about product risk and to disclose its findings. If the firm holds back information, it might be detected and fined. We show that optimal monitoring is determined by a trade-off. Overall, stricter enforcement reduces the incentives for selective reporting but crowds out information search. Our model implies that there are situations in which the relationship between the two monitoring instruments might be complementary. We also show that the welfare effects of mandatory disclosure depend on how it is enforced and that imperfect enforcement (in which some information remains concealed) might be optimal. In particular, the optimal fine might be smaller than the largest possible fine, even though the latter requires lower resource costs for inspections.