"In modern times, international borders reflect discontinuous changes in political authority, no matter what the inconveniences are for the individuals that they separate. What explains this fact? Why are the citizens of neighboring regions that happen to lie across an international border often...

We study the problem of a principal who relies on the reports of a monitor to provide incentives to an agent. We allow for collusion, so that the agent and monitor can side-contract on what report to send. We show that the principal can benefit from creating endogenous asymmetric information...