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Too much investment? A problem of endogenous outside options

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  • de Meza, David
  • Lockwood, Ben

Abstract

This paper shows that when agents on both sides of the market are heterogeneous, varying in their costs of investment, ex ante investments by firms and workers (or buyers and sellers more generally) may be too high when followed by stochastic matching and bargaining over quasi-rents. The overinvestment is caused by the fact that low-cost agents, by investing more, can increase the value of their outside option and thus shift rent away from high-cost investors. Numerical simulations show that overinvestment can occur given parameter values calibrated to OECD labour markets.

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  • de Meza, David & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "Too much investment? A problem of endogenous outside options," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 503-511, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:69:y:2010:i:2:p:503-511
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    Cited by:

    1. Georg Nöldeke & Larry Samuelson, 2015. "Investment and Competitive Matching," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(3), pages 835-896, May.
    2. George J. Mailath & Andrew Postlewaite & Larry Samuelson, 2017. "Premuneration Values and Investments in Matching Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 2041-2065, September.
    3. Chris Bidner, 2014. "A spillover‐based theory of credentialism," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(4), pages 1387-1425, November.
    4. Chris Bidner & Guillaume Roger & Jessica Moses, 2016. "Investing in Skill and Searching for Coworkers: Endogenous Participation in a Matching Market," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 166-202, February.
    5. Tomoeda, Kentaro, 2019. "Efficient investments in the implementation problem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 247-278.
    6. Darong Dai & Guoqiang Tian, 2020. "On the Efficiency of Wage-Setting Mechanisms with Search Frictions and Human Capital Investment," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 21(1), pages 1-40, May.
    7. Seungjin Han, 2019. "Pre-Match Investment Competition with Bounded Transfers," Department of Economics Working Papers 2019-01, McMaster University.
    8. Shiran Rachmilevitch, 2022. "Pre-bargaining Investment Implies a Pareto Ranking of Bargaining Solutions," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 769-787, August.
    9. Seungjin Han, 2018. "Repercussions of Endogenous Fast Rising Top Inequality," Department of Economics Working Papers 2018-03, McMaster University, revised May 2018.
    10. Elliott, M. & Talamàs, E., 2020. "Bargaining Foundations for Price Taking in Matching Markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2070, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    11. Cardona, Daniel & Rubí-Barceló, Antoni, 2014. "Investments and bargaining in a model with positive consumption externalities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 78-93.

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