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Collusion, Delegation and Supervision with Soft Information

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Author Info
Antoine Faure-Grimaud
Jean-Jacques Laffont
David Martimort

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Abstract

This paper shows that supervision with soft information is valuable whenever supervisors and supervisees collude under "asymmetric" information and proceeds then to derive an "Equivalence Principle" between organizational forms of supervisory and productive activities. We consider an organization with an agent privately informed on his productivity and a risk averse supervisor getting signals on the agent's type. In a centralized organization, the principal can communicate and contract with both the supervisor and the agent. However, these two agents can collude against the principal. In a decentralized organization, the principal only communicates and contracts with the supervisor who in turn sub-contracts with the agent. We show that the two organizations achieve the same outcome. We discuss this equivalence and provide various comparative statics results to assess the efficiency of supervisory structures. Copyright The Review of Economic Studies Limited, 2003.

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Article provided by Blackwell Publishing in its journal Review of Economic Studies.

Volume (Year): 70 (2003)
Issue (Month): 2 (04)
Pages: 253-279
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Handle: RePEc:bla:restud:v:70:y:2003:i:2:p:253-279

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. repec:bep:dewple:2005-1-1132 is not listed on IDEAS
  2. Thomas Giebe & Oliver Gürtler, 2008. "Optimal Contracts for Lenient Supervisors," Discussion Papers 237, SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Yeon-Koo Che & Jinwoo Kim, 2006. "Optimal Collusion-Proof Auctions," Discussion Papers 0506-22, Columbia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Hans K. Hvide & Tore Leite, 2003. "A Theory of Capital Structure with Strategic Defaults and Priority Violations," Finance 0311003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Chongwoo Choe & Shingo Ishiguro, 2009. "On The (Sub) Optimality Of Multi-Tier Hierarchies: Coordination Versus Motivation," Monash Economics Working Papers 18/08, Monash University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Scholz, Julia, 2008. "Auswirkungen vertikaler Kollusionsprobleme auf die vertragliche Ausgestaltung von Kreditverkäufen," Discussion Papers in Business Administration 4581, University of Munich, Munich School of Management. [Downloadable!]
  13. Martimort, David & Verdier, Thierry, 2003. "The Agency Cost of Internal Collusion and Schumpeterian Growth," IDEI Working Papers 170, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
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  18. Celik, Gorkem, 2004. "Mechanism Design with Collusive Supervision," Micro Theory Working Papers celik-04-09-13-05-42-19, Microeconomics.ca Website, revised 06 Aug 2008. [Downloadable!]
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  19. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Soenje Reiche, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 459, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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