Delegated Expertise

We introduce an expert to the syndicate setting. An expert is, tautologically, one who acquires expertise. We define expertise in terms of private information that is too costly to communicate. When the costs of acquiring expertise are not publicly observed and are borne directly by the expert, moral hazard concerns on information acquisition are shown to lead to inefficient introduction decisions. Further, we demonstrate that the Revelation Principle is generally not applicable in this setting of delegated expertise, since absent intervention by a benevolent translator or coordinator, the expert cannot commit herself not to use for her own gain the private information truthfully reported by informed nonexperts.