Abstract One of the most important and disputed questions within the fields of international relations and conflict studies concerns the issue of mediator impartiality. Should mediators be biased—supportive of one but not both of the main disputants—or should mediators always be impartial? This paper contributes to this debate by studying the effectiveness of mediation with regard to the role of mediator bias in a game-theoretic model of cheap talk. This study shows that the institutional design of a mediation process is affected by two factors: the relative degree of conflict and the incentives to misrepresent private information. We find that a necessary (but not always sufficient) condition for the success of a mediation process is a sufficiently low likelihood of a misrepresentation problem. If in addition, the relative degree of conflict is low enough, mediation is effective, and the institutional design of a mediation process is the same regardless of the bias. Otherwise, the design will be quite different depending on the direction of the bias. (JEL D63, D74, D82)

Andrés Salamanca

American Law and Economics Review

The rise of the field of law and economics has been extremely rapid over the last 25 years. Among important developments of the 1990s has been the founding of the American Law and Economics Association. The creation and rapid expansion of the ALEA and the creation of parallel associations in Europe, Latin America, and Canada attest to the growing acceptance of the economic perspective on law by judges, practitioners, and policy-makers.

The field of law and economics has experienced rapid growth over the past 25 years. One of the significant developments in the 1990s was the founding of the American Law and Economics Association (ALEA). The establishment and swift expansion of ALEA, along with the creation of parallel associations in Europe, Latin America, and Canada, reflect the increasing acceptance of the economic perspective on law by judges, practitioners, and policymakers.

法律与经济学领域在过去25年中迅速崛起。1990年代的重要发展之一是美国法律与经济学协会（American Law and Economics Association）的成立。ALEA的创建及其快速扩展，以及在欧洲、拉丁美洲和加拿大成立的类似协会，证明了法官、从业者和政策制定者对法律经济学视角的日益接受。

Category	Quartile
社会学	3
社会学, 法学	3
社会学, 经济学	4

Biased Mediators in Conflict Resolution

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