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Cited by 543

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 2 of the 2 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

A Theory of Credibility

Sobel, Joel·1985·The Review of Economic Studies
DOI 10.2307/2297732
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Abstract

This paper presents models in which one agent must decide whether to trust another, whose motives are uncertain. Reliability can only be communicated through actions. In this context, it pays for people to build a reputation based on reliable behaviour; someone becomes credible by consistently providing accurate and valuable information or by performing useful services. The theory provides a justification for long-term arrangements without binding contracts. It also describes those situations where it pays an agent to cash in on his reputation.

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Cites

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Citations

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Metadata

Authors
Sobel, J.
Venue
The Review of Economic Studies
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
1985-10
Volume
52
Issue
4
Pages
557
ISSN
0034-6527 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2307/2297732
OpenAlex
W1980165907
Cited by
543
References
2
FWCI
4.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: A Theory of Credibility. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/2297732
The paper
Sobel, J. (1985). A Theory of Credibility. The Review of Economic Studies. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297732

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.