IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mpg/wpaper/2004_08.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Nonlinear Incentive Provision in Walrasian Markets: A Cournot Convergence Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Hellwig

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Abstract

The paper studies insurance with moral hazard in a system of contingent-claims markets. Insurance buyers are modelled as Cournot monopolists or oligopolists. The other agents condition their expectations on market prices, as in models of rational-expectations equilibrium with asymmetric information. Thereby they correctly anticipate accident probabilities corresponding to effort incentives induced by insurance buyers’ net trades. When there are many agents to share the insurance buyer’s risk, Cournot equilibrium outcomes are close to being second-best. In contrast, if insurance buyers are price takers, equilibria fail to exist or are bounded away from being second-best.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Hellwig, 2004. "Nonlinear Incentive Provision in Walrasian Markets: A Cournot Convergence Approach," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2004_8, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.coll.mpg.de/pdf_dat/2004_08online.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Bisin & Danilo Guaitoli, 2004. "Moral Hazard and Nonexclusive Contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 35(2), pages 306-328, Summer.
    2. Roberts, John & Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1977. "On the Foundations of the Theory of Monopolistic Competition," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 101-113, January.
    3. Oliver D. Hart, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition in a Large Economy with Differentiated Commodities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 46(1), pages 1-30.
    4. Edmond Malinvaud, 1974. "The Allocation of Individual Risks in Large Markets," International Economic Association Series, in: Jacques H. Drèze (ed.), Allocation under Uncertainty: Equilibrium and Optimality, chapter 8, pages 110-125, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Alberto Bennardo & Pierre-Andre Chiappori, 2003. "Bertrand and Walras Equilibria under Moral Hazard," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(4), pages 785-817, August.
    6. Marshall, John M, 1976. "Moral Hazard," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 880-890, December.
    7. Prescott, Edward C & Townsend, Robert M, 1984. "Pareto Optima and Competitive Equilibria with Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(1), pages 21-45, January.
    8. Marcos B. Lisboa, 2001. "Moral hazard and general equilibrium in large economies," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 18(3), pages 555-575.
    9. Admati, Anat R & Pfleiderer, Paul & Zechner, Josef, 1994. "Large Shareholder Activism, Risk Sharing, and Financial Market Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1097-1130, December.
    10. Shapley, Lloyd S & Shubik, Martin, 1977. "Trade Using One Commodity as a Means of Payment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(5), pages 937-968, October.
    11. Albert S. Kyle, 1989. "Informed Speculation with Imperfect Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(3), pages 317-355.
    12. Novshek, William & Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1978. "Cournot and Walras equilibrium," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 223-266, December.
    13. Helpman, Elhanan & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1975. "On moral hazard in general equilibrium theory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 8-23, February.
    14. Hellwig, Martin, 2000. "Nonlinear Incentive Contracting in Walrasian Markets: A Cournot Approach," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 00-42, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    15. Makowski, Louis, 1980. "Perfect competition, the profit criterion, and the organization of economic activity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 222-242, April.
    16. Mark V. Pauly, 1974. "Overinsurance and Public Provision of Insurance: The Roles of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 88(1), pages 44-62.
    17. Gale, Douglas & Hellwig, Martin, 2002. "Competitive Insurance Markets with Asymmetric Information : a Cournot-Arrow-Debreu Approach," Papers 02-19, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    18. Sanford J. Grossman, 1981. "An Introduction to the Theory of Rational Expectations Under Asymmetric Information," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 48(4), pages 541-559.
    19. Ostroy, Joseph M., 1980. "The no-surplus condition as a characterization of perfectly competitive equilibrium," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 183-207, April.
    20. Bisin, Alberto & Gottardi, Piero, 1999. "Competitive Equilibria with Asymmetric Information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 1-48, July.
    21. Jaynes, Gerald David, 1978. "Equilibria in monopolistically competitive insurance markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 394-422, December.
    22. Sanford J. Grossman, 1977. "The Existence of Futures Markets, Noisy Rational Expectations and Informational Externalities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 431-449.
    23. Kenneth J. Arrow & Robert C. Lind, 1974. "Uncertainty and the Evaluation of Public Investment Decisions," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 3, pages 54-75, Palgrave Macmillan.
    24. Steven Shavell, 1979. "On Moral Hazard and Insurance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(4), pages 541-562.
    25. Arnott, Richard J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1988. " The Basic Analytics of Moral Hazard," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 90(3), pages 383-413.
    26. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1998. "The effects of moral hazard on asset prices when financial markets are complete," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 39-56, February.
    27. Roberts, Kevin, 1980. "The limit points of monopolistic competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 256-278, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Calcagno, Riccardo & Wagner, Wolf, 2006. "Dispersed initial ownership and the efficiency of the stock market under moral hazard," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 36-45, February.
    2. Alberto Bisin & Piero Gottardi & Adriano A. Rampini, 2008. "Managerial Hedging and Portfolio Monitoring," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(1), pages 158-209, March.
    3. Attar, Andrea & Mariotti, Thomas & Salanié, François, 2021. "Competitive Nonlinear Pricing under Adverse Selection," TSE Working Papers 21-1201, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Aug 2022.
    4. Zigrand, Jean-Pierre, 2004. "A general equilibrium analysis of strategic arbitrage," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 923-952, December.
    5. Attar, Andrea & Mariotti, Thomas & Salanié, François, 2014. "Multiple Contracting in Insurance Markets," IDEI Working Papers 839, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Sep 2016.
    6. Joseph E. Stiglitz & Jungyoll Yun & Andrew Kosenko, 2017. "Equilibrium in a Competitive Insurance Market Under Adverse Selection with Endogenous Information," NBER Working Papers 23556, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Magill, Michael & Quinzii, Martine, 2002. "Capital market equilibrium with moral hazard," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1-2), pages 149-190, September.
    8. Luca, PANACCIONE, 2006. "Inefficiency of competitive equilibrium with hidden action and financial markets," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006049, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    9. Andrea Attar & Thomas Mariotti & François Salanié, 2020. "The Social Costs of Side Trading," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(630), pages 1608-1622.
    10. Giuseppe Bertola & Winfried Koeniger, 2015. "Hidden insurance in a moral-hazard economy," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(4), pages 777-790, October.
    11. Michael Magill & Martine Quinzii, 2009. "The probability approach to general equilibrium with production," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 39(1), pages 1-41, April.
    12. Loss, Frédéric & Piaser, Gwenaël, 2019. "Linear price equilibria in a non-exclusive insurance market," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 22-30.
    13. Bloise, Gaetano & Reichlin, Pietro, 2005. "Risk and intermediation in a dual financial market economy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 257-279, September.
    14. Xavier Vives, 2000. "Allocative and Productive Efficiency in REE with Asymetric Information," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 473.00, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    15. , & , & ,, 2014. "Nonexclusive competition under adverse selection," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), January.
    16. Magill, Michael & Quinzii, Martine, 2008. "Normative properties of stock market equilibrium with moral hazard," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(7-8), pages 785-806, July.
    17. Daron Acemoglu & Alp Simsek, 2010. "Moral Hazard and Efficiency in General Equilibrium with Anonymous Trading," Levine's Working Paper Archive 661465000000000232, David K. Levine.
    18. Frédéric Loss & Gwanaël Piaser, 2013. "Linear Prices Equilibria and Nonexclusive Insurance Market," Working Papers hal-00870113, HAL.
    19. Dionne, Georges, 1981. "Le risque moral et la sélection adverse : une revue critique de la littérature," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 57(2), pages 193-224, avril-jui.
    20. Andrea Attar & Thomas Mariotti & François Salanié, 2011. "Nonexclusive Competition in the Market for Lemons," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(6), pages 1869-1918, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Insurance; Moral Hazard; Incentive Contracting; Walrasian Markets; Rational-Expectations; Cournot Equilibrium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marc Martin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mppggde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.