ABSTRACT
This paper aims to analyze, from Akerlof, Grossman and Stiglitz´s works about information asymmetries, the role that the different mechanisms of certification may assume to reduce the uncertainty in relation with quality. Such mechanisms may be applied to various social activities: environment, financial system, food industry, evaluation of the financial risk, services and goods quality, and so on. From an extended conception of quality, I will highlight how a reliable system of certification may reduce such asymmetries, and I will demonstrate why a private system based on a market logic is not able to achieve such an objective. Finally, I will indicate the alternative modes of governance that enable to design a reliable system of certification.
KEYWORDS:
information asymmetries; certification; opportunistic behaviors; social welfare; prices opacity