IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v192y2020ics0165176520301312.html

Correlation neglect, incentives, and welfare

Author

Listed:
  • Klümper, Andreas
  • Kräkel, Matthias

Abstract

We modify the Holmström–Milgrom model by letting the agent neglect the correlation between performance measures. Whenever true and perceived correlation are sufficiently low, correlation neglect enhances material welfare and expected profit. Otherwise, material welfare diminishes, and the agent may benefit.

Suggested Citation

  • Klümper, Andreas & Kräkel, Matthias, 2020. "Correlation neglect, incentives, and welfare," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:192:y:2020:i:c:s0165176520301312
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176520301312
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109171?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de la Rosa, Leonidas Enrique, 2011. "Overconfidence and moral hazard," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 429-451.
    2. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1987. "Aggregation and Linearity in the Provision of Intertemporal Incentives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 303-328, March.
    3. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    4. Alex Rees-Jones & Ran Shorrer & Chloe Tergiman, 2024. "Correlation Neglect in Student-to-School Matching," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 1-42, August.
    5. Benjamin Enke & Florian Zimmermann, 2019. "Correlation Neglect in Belief Formation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 313-332.
    6. Pietro Ortoleva & Erik Snowberg, 2015. "Overconfidence in Political Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(2), pages 504-535, February.
    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. Iossa, Elisabetta & Martimort, David, 2015. "Pessimistic information gathering," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 75-96.
    2. Philipp Weinschenk, 2010. "Moral Hazard and Ambiguity," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics 2010_39, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics.
    3. Florian Mudekereza, 2025. "Aggregate Efficiency in Games," Papers 2501.13019, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2026.
    4. Dietrichson, Jens, 2013. "Coordination Incentives, Performance Measurement and Resource Allocation in Public Sector Organizations," Working Papers 2013:26, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    5. Oyer, Paul & Schaefer, Scott, 2011. "Personnel Economics: Hiring and Incentives," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 20, pages 1769-1823, Elsevier.
    6. Antonio Sánchez Soliño, 2019. "Sustainability of Public Services: Is Outsourcing the Answer?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Lin Meng & George Xianzhi Yuan & Huiqi Wang, 2025. "Dynamic Incentive Strategies for Principal‐Agent Coopetition: A Stochastic Approach to Managing Risks and Performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(7), pages 3976-3997, October.
    8. Michael T. Rauh & Giulio Seccia, 2010. "Agency and Anxiety," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 87-116, March.
      • Michael T. Rauh & Giulio Seccia, 2006. "Agency and Anxiety," Working Papers 2006-02, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    9. Fuhai Hong & Dong Zhang, 2023. "Bureaucratic beliefs and law enforcement," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 357-379, September.
    10. Nicola Lacetera, 2003. "Incentives and spillovers in R&D activities: an agency-theoretic analysis of industry-university relations," Microeconomics 0312004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Issouf Soumaré, 2013. "Incentives and Voluntary Investment in Employer Shares," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 42(1), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Xueguo Xu & Tingting Xu & Meizeng Gui, 2020. "Incentive Mechanism for Municipal Solid Waste Disposal PPP Projects in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    13. Mathias Dewatripont & Patrick Legros, 2005. "Public-private partnerships: contract design and risk transfer," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/175947, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. Sloof, Randolph & van Praag, C. Mirjam, 2008. "Performance measurement, expectancy and agency theory: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(3-4), pages 794-809, September.
    15. Max Zongyuan Shang & Ken McEwan, 2021. "The make‐or‐buy decision of feed on livestock farms: Evidence from Ontario swine farms," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(3), pages 353-368, September.
    16. René Kirkegaard, 2020. "Contracting with private rewards," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(2), pages 589-612, June.
    17. Yoon K. Choi, 2020. "Does executive compensation reflect corporate productivity?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7-8), pages 1012-1033, July.
    18. Reinwald Patrick & Leitner Stephan & Wall Friederike, 2024. "Performance-Based Pay and Limited Information Access. An Agent-Based Model of the Hidden Action Problem," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 244(4), pages 381-423.
    19. Maxim Senkov & Toygar T. Kerman, 2024. "Changing Simplistic Worldviews," Papers 2401.02867, arXiv.org.
    20. Hans Gersbach, 1998. "On the Equivalence of General and Specific Control in Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 730-737, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics

    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:eee:ecolet:v:192:y:2020:i:c:s0165176520301312. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.