Moral Hazard and Limited Liability: Implications for the Theory of the Firm
Abstract
This paper presents a theory of the firm based on moral hazard in the provision of effort by an owner-manager who borrows money in financial markets under conditions of limited liability. The authors examine the relationship between the financial structure of the firm and the effort and output decisions of the owner-manager. Results are reported concerning the determination of the firm's optimal financial structure, and concerning the positive and normative implications of financial structure for pure competition and monopoly. They also identify a strategic advantage from equity finance under Cournot oligopoly. Copyright 1989 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association in its journal International Economic Review.
Volume (Year): 30 (1989)
Issue (Month): 4 (November)
Pages: 833-49
Contact details of provider:
Postal: 160 McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297
Phone: (215) 898-8487
Fax: (215) 573-2057
Email:
Web page: http://www.econ.upenn.edu/ier
More information through EDIRC
Order Information:
Email:
Web: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=0020-6598
Related research
Keywords:References
No references listed on IDEASYou can help add them by filling out this form.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Wagner, W.B., 2000. "Decentralized International Risk Sharing and Governmental Moral Hazard," Discussion Paper 2000-92, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
- Dionne, Georges & Gagne, Robert & Gagnon, Francois & Vanasse, Charles, 1997.
"Debt, moral hazard and airline safety An empirical evidence,"
Journal of Econometrics,
Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 379-402, August.
- Dionne, G. & Gagne, R. & Gagnon, F. & Vanasse, C., 1993. "Debt, Moral Hazard and Airline Safety : An Empirical Evidence," Cahiers de recherche 9309, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
- Dionne, G. & Gagne, R. & Gagnon, F. & Vanasse, C., 1994. "Debts, moral hazard and airline safety : an empirica evidence," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9419, CEPREMAP.
- Fluet, Claude, 1999.
"Régulation des risques et insolvabilité : le rôle de la responsabilité pour faute en information imparfaite,"
L'Actualité Economique,
Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 75(1), pages 379-399, mars-juin.
- Claude Fluet, 1998. "Régulation des risques et insolvabilité: le rôle de la responsabilité pour faute en information imparfaite," Cahiers de recherche du Département des sciences économiques, UQAM 9802, Université du Québec à Montréal, Département des sciences économiques.
- Kessler, Anke & Lülfesmann, Christoph & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2002. "Optimal Contracting in Agency with Verifiable Ex Post Information," CEPR Discussion Papers 3428, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Fraja, Gianni De & Piga, Claudio A. G., 2004. "Strategic debt in vertical relationships: theory and evidence," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 103-123, June.
- Röller, Lars-Hendrik & Stennek, Johan & Verboven, Frank, 2000.
"Efficiency Gains from Mergers,"
Working Paper Series
543, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
- Lars-Hendrik Röller & Johan Stennek & Frank Verboven, 2000. "Efficiency Gains from Mergers," CIG Working Papers FS IV 00-09, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
- Roller, L.-H. & Stennek, J. & Verboven, F., 2000. "Efficiency Gains from Mergers," Research Institute of Industrial Economics Working Papers 543, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN).
- Jeffrey I. Bernstein & M. Ishaq Nadiri, 1993.
"Production, Financial Structure and Productivity Growth in U.S. Manufacturing,"
NBER Working Papers
4309, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Bernstein, J.I. & Nadiri, M.I., 1993. "Production, Financial Structure and Productivity Growth in U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 93-10, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
- Elie Appelbaum, 2007. "Incomplete Contracts, Bankruptcy and the Firm’s Capital Structure," Working Papers 2007_06, York University, Department of Economics.
- Dionne, Georges & Spaeter, Sandrine, 2003.
"Environmental risk and extended liability: The case of green technologies,"
Journal of Public Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 87(5-6), pages 1025-1060, May.
- Dionne, G. & Spaeter, S., 1998. "Environmental Risk and Extended Liability: the Case of Green Technologies," Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal- 98-12, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal-Chaire de gestion des risques..
- Gianni De Fraja & Claudio A. G. Piga, .
"Strategic Debt in Vertical Relationships,"
Discussion Papers
98/16, Department of Economics, University of York.
- Gianni deFraja & Claudio Piga, 2000. "Strategic Debt in Vertical Relationships," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0059, Econometric Society.
- Hossain, Ferdaus & Jain, Ruchi, 2001. "Financial Structure, Production and Productivity Growth in U.S. Food Manufacturing Industry," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20756, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
- Magill, Michael & Quinzii, Martine, 2002. "Capital market equilibrium with moral hazard," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1-2), pages 149-190, September.
- Teresa John & Lemma Senbet & Anant Sundaram & Peter Woodward, 2005. "Limited Liability and Market Power," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 215-231, November.
- Michael Magill, 2000. "Equity, Options and Efficiency in the Presence of Moral Hazard," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1845, Econometric Society.
- Hennessy, Christopher A. & Livdan, Dmitry, 2009. "Debt, bargaining, and credibility in firm-supplier relationships," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 382-399, September.
- Jacques Lawarree & Marc van Audenrode, 2000. "Moral Hazard and Limited Liability," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0971, Econometric Society.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:30:y:1989:i:4:p:833-49For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or ().
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

