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Contracting under ex post moral hazard and non-commitment

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  • M. Boyer

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Abstract

This paper characterizes the optimal insurance contract in an environment where an informed agent can misrepresent the state of the world to a principal who cannot credibly commit to an auditing strategy. Because the principal cannot commit, the optimal strategy of the agent is not to tell the truth all the time. Assuming that there are T > 1 possible losses, and that the agent cannot fake an accident (he is constrained only to misreport the size of the loss when a loss occurs), the optimal contract is such that higher losses are over-compensated while lower losses are on average under-compensated. The amount by which higher losses are over-compensated decreases as the loss increases. The optimal contract may then be represented as a simple combination of a deductible, a lump-sum payment and a coinsurance provision. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2003

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Springer in its journal Review Economic Design.

Volume (Year): 8 (2003)
Issue (Month): 1 (August)
Pages: 1-38

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Handle: RePEc:spr:reecde:v:8:y:2003:i:1:p:1-38

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Keywords: Non-commitment; insurance; ex post moral hazard; contract theory.;

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References

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  1. Graetz, Michael J & Reinganum, Jennifer F & Wilde, Louis L, 1986. "The Tax Compliance Game: Toward an Interactive Theory of Law Enforcement," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
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  16. Bond, Eric W & Crocker, Keith J, 1991. "Smoking, Skydiving, and Knitting: The Endogenous Categorization of Risks in Insurance Markets with Asymmetric Information," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(1), pages 177-200, February.
  17. Gale, Douglas & Hellwig, Martin, 1985. "Incentive-Compatible Debt Contracts: The One-Period Problem," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 647-63, October.
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Cited by:
  1. Bénédicte Coestier & Nathalie Fombaron, 2003. "L'audit en assurance," THEMA Working Papers 2003-41, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
  2. Schiller, Jörg, 2004. "Versicherungsbetrug als ökonomisches Problem: Eine vertragstheoretische Analyse," Working Papers on Risk and Insurance 13, University of Hamburg, Institute for Risk and Insurance.
  3. Tajudeen Olalekan Yusuf, 2011. "Brokers' incentives and conflicts of interest in the control of opportunism," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 11(3), pages 168-181, May.
  4. J Fran�ois Outreville, 2010. "The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review 2009: In Quest of Behavioural Insurance," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(3), pages 484-497, July.

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