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Relational Delegation

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Author Info
Alonso, Ricardo (Northwestern University)
Matouschek, Niko () (Northwestern University and IZA Bonn)
Abstract

We explore the optimal delegation of decision rights by a principal to a better informed but biased agent. In an infinitely repeated game a long lived principal faces a series of short lived agents. Every period they play a cheap talk game ala Crawford and Sobel (1982) with constant bias, quadratic loss functions and general distributions of the state of the world. We characterize the optimal delegation schemes for all discount rates and show that they resemble organizational arrangements that are commonly observed, including centralization and threshold delegation. For small biases threshold delegation is optimal for almost all distributions. Outsourcing can only be optimal if the principal is sufficiently impatient.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1454.

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Length: 49 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1454

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Related research
Keywords: delegation; cheap talk; relational contract;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production

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References listed on IDEAS
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. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-29, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Baker, George & Gibbons, Robert & Murphy, Kevin J, 1994. "Subjective Performance Measures in Optimal Incentive Contracts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(4), pages 1125-56, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Jonathan Levin, 2003. "Relational Incentive Contracts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 835-857, June. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1996. " The Capital Budgeting Process: Incentives and Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1139-74, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Vijay Krishna & John Morgan, 2005. "Contracting for Information under Imperfect Commitment," Microeconomics 0504006, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Anthony M. Marino & John G. Matsusaka, 2005. "Decision Processes, Agency Problems, and Information: An Economic Analysis of Capital Budgeting Procedures," Review of Financial Studies, Oxford University Press for Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 301-325. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Crawford, Vincent P & Sobel, Joel, 1982. "Strategic Information Transmission," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1431-51, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Nahum D. Melumad & Toshiyuki Shibano, 1991. "Communication in Settings with No. Transfers," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(2), pages 173-198, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Dessein, Wouter, 2002. "Authority and Communication in Organizations," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 69(4), pages 811-38, October.
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