The occupations of slaves sold in New Orleans: Missing values, cheap talk, or informative advertising?

摘要: We propose an alternative test for adverse selection using notarial records slaves sold in New Orleans 1830. The experiment is simple and mimics the used car example originally proposed by Akerlof (1970). When rst Orleans, buyers of imported were uninformed slaves’ unobservable characteristics. In time, new owners learned more about their \lemons" \peaches" retained. Because anticipate that oered sale lower quality on average, they reduce bids these slaves. Consequently, we should observe a price who resold market. this proposition linking sequential sales 833 Orleans. Through comparison initial resale prices, nd prices increased which suggests had relatively small eect