Reputational concerns and the expertise of experts

Experts can often gather and report information over time. If experts have career concerns the sequential nature of this process may result in suboptimal information collection. If only a final report is produced the expert only gathers the most accurate information. Requiring an intermediate report need not lead to more information collection and may even lead the expert to only obtain the least accurate piece of information. Thus while an intermediate report may lead to more information being collected, the reputational concerns of the agent may also ensure that the opposite occurs.