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Using Cost Observation to Regulate Bureaucratic Firms

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Author Info
Ana Pinto Borges () (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto)
João Correia-da-Silva () (CEMPRE and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto)

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Abstract

We study regulation of a bureaucratic provider of a public good in the presence of moral hazard and adverse selection. By bureaucratic we mean that it values output in itself, and not only profit. Three different financing systems are studied - cost reimbursement, prospective payment, and the optimal contract. In all cases, the output level increases with the bureaucratic bias. We find that the optimal contract is linear in cost (fixed payment plus partial cost-reimbursement). A stronger preference for high output reduces the tendency of the firm to announce a high cost (adverse selection), allowing a more powered incentive scheme (a lower fraction of the costs is reimbursed), which alleviates the problem of moral hazard.

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File URL: http://www.fep.up.pt/investigacao/workingpapers/08.12.05_wp304.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto in its series FEP Working Papers with number 304.

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Length: 36 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:304

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Related research
Keywords: Procurement; Regulation; Adverse selection; Moral hazard; Bureaucracy;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

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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. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Using Cost Observation to Regulate Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 614-41, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Myerson, Roger B, 1979. "Incentive Compatibility and the Bargaining Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 61-73, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. David P. Baron & David Besanko, 1984. "Regulation, Asymmetric Information, and Auditing," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 447-470, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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