Many models in the economics literature deal with strategic situations with privately informed agents. In those models the information structure is assumed to be exogenous and common knowledge. In many applications information gathering is one of the strategic options available to agents. We...

We analyze a model of (repeated) franchise bidding for natural monopoly that relies on contestable licensing -- the right to operate the franchise belongs to the party who owns the appropriate license as long as the license is not successfully contested through a process of competitive bidding...