Journal of Public Economics · 2021 · David Emmanuel de Meza、Francesco Reito、Diane J Reyniers
Abstract
Adverse selection famously leads to the crowding out of socially beneficial trades. We show that even more trades may be simultaneously crowded in. The reason is that, in the absence of complete unravelling, “lemons” fetch more under adverse selection. It is demonstrated how these “bad” trades occur in insurance, credit and used-car markets, and some policy implications are discussed.