IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/poleco/v18y2002i3p407-428.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information acquisition, political game and the delegation of authority

Author

Listed:
  • Laffont, Jean-Jacques
  • Zantman, Wilfried

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the problem of decentralizing public good decision-making from a political and informational perspective. First, we explain why different levels of jurisdiction, central decision-maker and local ones, are likely to take their decisions under different informational structures by deriving the incentives of both potential decision-makers to look for the relevant pieces of information. By endogenizing the informational structures, we identify a trade-off in the choice between centralization and decentralization. It amounts to choosing between a costly information technology allowing to take optimal decisions and a free information technology subject to several distortionary influences.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Zantman, Wilfried, 2002. "Information acquisition, political game and the delegation of authority," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 407-428, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:18:y:2002:i:3:p:407-428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176-2680(02)00098-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Green, Jerry & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1977. "Characterization of Satisfactory Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences for Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(2), pages 427-438, March.
    2. Myerson, Roger B, 1979. "Incentive Compatibility and the Bargaining Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 61-73, January.
    3. Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 1998. "Collusion and Delegation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 280-305, Summer.
    4. Green, Jerry & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1977. "On the revelation of preferences for public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 79-93, August.
    5. Gilbert, Guy & Picard, Pierre, 1996. "Incentives and optimal size of local jurisdictions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 19-41, January.
    6. Seabright, Paul, 1996. "Accountability and decentralisation in government: An incomplete contracts model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 61-89, January.
    7. Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Hierarchies and Bureaucracies: On the Role of Collusion in Organizations," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 181-214, Fall.
    8. Gibbard, Allan, 1973. "Manipulation of Voting Schemes: A General Result," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(4), pages 587-601, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexander Wagner, 2011. "Loyalty and competence in public agencies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 145-162, January.
    2. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Pouyet, Jerome, 2004. "The subsidiarity bias in regulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 255-283, January.
    3. Breuille, Marie-Laure & Gary-Bobo, Robert J., 2007. "Sharing budgetary austerity under free mobility and asymmetric information: An optimal regulation approach to fiscal federalism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1177-1196, June.
    4. Claude Ménard & Gaetano Martino & Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira & Annie Royer & Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes & Paula Sarita Bigio Schnaider, 2022. "Governing food safety through meso‐institutions: A cross‐country analysis of the dairy sector," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 1722-1741, December.
    5. Jose Ripoll, 2003. "National Appointments to Multinational Monetary Policy Making: A Role Conflict?," Macroeconomics 0301009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Morasch, Karl, 2003. "Deciding about (de-)centralization of industrial policy: Delegation by a central authority vs. bargaining of regional governments," Working Papers in Economics 2003,3, Bundeswehr University Munich, Economic Research Group.
    7. Cécile Aubert & Jean-Jacques Laffont & Pablo Serra & Diego Bondorevsky & Diego Petrecolla & Alfredo García & Paulina Beato & David Wood & Richard Tomiak & Jaime Millán & Carmen Fuente & Salomé Cisnal , 2002. "Competition Policy in Regulated Industries: Approaches for Emerging Economies," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 42038 edited by Paulina Beato & Jean-Jacques Laffont, February.

    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. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Pouyet, Jerome, 2004. "The subsidiarity bias in regulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 255-283, January.
    2. de Clippel, Geoffroy & Pérez-Castrillo, David & Wettstein, David, 2012. "Egalitarian equivalence under asymmetric information," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 413-423.
    3. Peters, Michael, 2001. "Common Agency and the Revelation Principle," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(5), pages 1349-1372, September.
    4. Migrow, Dimitri, 2021. "Designing communication hierarchies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    5. Liad Wagman & Vincent Conitzer, 2014. "False-name-proof voting with costs over two alternatives," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(3), pages 599-618, August.
    6. Chen, Jiakai, 2021. "LIBOR's poker," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    7. Galperti, Simone, 2015. "Common agency with informed principals: Menus and signals," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 648-667.
    8. Josheski Dushko & Karamazova Elena, 2021. "Auction theory and a note on game mechanisms," Croatian Review of Economic, Business and Social Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 43-59, May.
    9. Dilip Mookherjee, 2008. "The 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Mechanism Design Theory," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 237-260, June.
    10. Eduardo M Azevedo & Eric Budish, 2019. "Strategy-proofness in the Large," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 86(1), pages 81-116.
    11. Meirowitz, Adam, 2005. "Deliberative Democracy or Market Democracy: Designing Institutions to Aggregate Preferences and Information," Papers 03-28-2005, Princeton University, Research Program in Political Economy.
    12. James Schummer, 1999. "Almost-dominant Strategy Implementation," Discussion Papers 1278, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    13. Obara Ichiro, 2008. "The Full Surplus Extraction Theorem with Hidden Actions," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, March.
    14. Martin Besfamille, 2000. "Fiscal federalism, local public works and corruption," CREPP Working Papers 0001, Centre de Recherche en Economie Publique et de la Population (CREPP) (Research Center on Public and Population Economics) HEC-Management School, University of Liège.
    15. Stefan Ambec & Michel Poitevin, 2016. "Decision-making in organizations: when to delegate and whom to delegate," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 20(2), pages 115-143, June.
    16. David P. Baron, 1980. "A Model of the Demand for Investment Banking Advisement and Distribution Services for New Issues," Discussion Papers 446, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    17. Duygu Yengin, 2012. "Egalitarian-equivalent Groves mechanisms in the allocation of heterogenous objects," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 38(1), pages 137-160, January.
    18. Marek Pycia & Peter Troyan, 2021. "A theory of simplicity in games and mechanism design," ECON - Working Papers 393, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    19. Juan Feng, 2004. "Optimal Allocation Mechanisms When Bidders Ranking for the objects is common," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 545, Econometric Society.
    20. John O. Ledyard, 1978. "The Allocation of Public Goods with Sealed-Bid Auctions: Some Preliminary Evaluations," Discussion Papers 336, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

    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:poleco:v:18:y:2002:i:3:p:407-428. 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/inca/505544 .

    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.