Abstract: This chapter presents an alternative approach to reputations based on a long-lived player who endeavors to separate himself from an undesirable (or inept) type, in contrast to the traditional models based on pooling with desirable commitment types. The long-lived player faces a continuum of long-lived idiosyncratic players. The goal is a more flexible model in which reputations have the properties of productive assets, requiring investments to build and maintain. The chapter provides an extensive discussion of the relationship between this model and previous analyses, as well as bad reputations and the role of the market for reputations.

Keywords: bad reputation, commitment types, idiosyncratic player, inept type, market for reputations, reputation, separating reputation,