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Why Bureaucrats Leak

Fri, August 31, 2:00 to 3:30pm, Hynes, 206

Abstract

When do bureaucrats leak? We analyze the strategic incentives to leak in a three player setting involving a leader who chooses policy, a bureaucrat who knows and can leak the true cost of a policy innovation, and an audience who can support or oppose the leader based on her choice. We find that bureaucrats leak when they favor a policy, the leader is biased against it, and the audience, without new information, would also oppose the policy, but could be brought around to favor it if it learned its true costs. The bureaucrat leaks the information to the audience, which then pressures the leader to adopt the bureaucrat's preferred policy.

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