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Trust and reciprocity in incentive contracting

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Author Info
Rigdon, Mary

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Abstract

Principals can attempt to get agents to perform certain actions preferable to the principal by using ex post punishments or rewards to align incentives. Field data is mixed on whether, and to what extent, such informal incentive contracting (paradoxically) crowds out efficient solutions to the agency problem. This paper explores, via a novel set of laboratory experiments, the impact of ex post incentives on informal contracts between principals and agents in bargaining environments in which there are gains from exchange and when there is an opportunity for the principal to relay a no-cost demand of the division of those gains. Incentive contracting in these environments does not crowd-out off-equilibrium cooperation, and at high incentive levels cooperation is crowded in.

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File URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2007/
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 2007.

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Date of creation: May 2005
Date of revision: 15 May 2006
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:2007

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Keywords: incentives trust reciprocity organizations experimental economics

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, and Operations
D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General

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References listed on IDEAS
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, 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. Gillies, Anthony S & Rigdon, Mary L, 2008. "Epistemic Conditions and Social Preferences in Trust Games," MPRA Paper 9626, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Avner Ben-Ner & Louis Putterman, . "Trust, Communication and Contracts: An Experiment," Working Papers 0206, Industrial Relations Center, University of Minnesota (Twin Cities Campus). [Downloadable!]
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