Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2020

Publication Title

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics

Volume

12

Issue

1

Pages

220-259

Publisher Name

American Economic Association

Abstract

The lack of hard evidence in allegations about sexual misconduct makes it difficult to separate true allegations from false ones. We provide a model in which victims and potential libelers face the same costs and benefits from making an allegation, but the tendency for perpetrators of sexual misconduct to engage in repeat offenses allows semiseparation to occur, which lends credibility to such allegations. Our model also explains why reports about sexual misconduct are often delayed, and why the public rationally assigns less credibility to these delayed reports.

Comments

Author Posting © American Economic Association, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of the American Economic Association for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Volume 12, Issue 1, February 2020, http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/mic.20180231

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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