Asymmetric Information
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2001
Interview with Akerlof, Spence and Stiglitz
George Akerlof
The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism
Quarterly Journal of Economics
, 84:3(Aug. 1970), pp. 488-500.
Writing the Market for Lemons: A Personal Essay
Akerlof's essay on the background of the article. Highly recommended.
Behavioral Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Behavior
Akerlof's Nobel Prize lecture, spelling out the macroeconomic implications of the Lemons article.
Tests of the Lemons Model
A Direct Test of the Lemons Model: The Market for Used Pickup Trucks
by Eric W. Bond.
American Economic Review
, 72:4(Sept. 1982): 836-840.
Vettes and Lemons on EBay
by Christopher Adams, Laura Hosken, and Peter Newberry.
Paper for a University of Maryland workshop by three researchers for the Federal Trade Commission, October 2005.
Quality Differentials and Prices: Are Cherries Lemons?
by Robert E. Rosenman and Wesley W. Wilson.
Journal of Industrial Economics
, 39:6 (Dec. 1991), 649-658.
Michael Spence
Job Market Signaling
Quarterly Journal of Economics
, 87:3(Aug. 1973), pp. 355-374.
Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets
Spence's Nobel Prize Lecture. Good overview and extension of the model presented in the article cited above.
Joseph Stiglitz
Information and the Change in Paradigm in Economics
Stiglitz's Nobel Prize lecture.
The Contributions of the Economics of Information to Twentieth Century Economics
by Joseph Stiglitz.
Quarterly Journal of Economics
, 115(4): November, 2000, pp. 1441-1478.
Briefer than Stiglitz's Nobel lecture, and a good starting place.
Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information
by Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Weiss.
American Economic Review
, 71:3(June 1981), pp. 393-410.