Strategic certification and provision of quality

We study the effect of the presence of a certification intermediary in an e nvironment where information asymmetries are particularly severe. The inter mediary improves the information that buyers have about quality. This in tu rn increases the incentives that the seller has to provide high-quality goo ds. Efficiency is increased by the presence of the intermediary, but qualit y is underprovided in equilibrium relative to full information. The interme diary can implement the optimal policy in many ways. The amount of informat ion revealed ranges from full disclosure to partial, noisy disclosure.