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Contracts in informed-principal problems with moral hazard

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  • Nicholas Charles Bedard

    (University of Technology, Sydney)

Abstract

In many cases, an employer has private information about the potential productivity of a worker, who in turn has private information about the effort she exerts on the job. Much of the analysis of this environment in the literature restricts the employer to offer contracts that depend only on observable outcomes (e.g., profit). This paper studies the advantages to the employer of offering the worker a set of potential contracts from which the employer will choose after the worker has accepted the offer, so called menu-contracts. Specifically, in a two-state principal-agent problem with moral hazard, I show when the principal can obtain strictly higher expected payoffs than the restricted contracts of the literature by offering a menu-contract.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Charles Bedard, 2017. "Contracts in informed-principal problems with moral hazard," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 5(1), pages 21-34, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:etbull:v:5:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s40505-016-0093-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s40505-016-0093-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Myerson, Roger B, 1983. "Mechanism Design by an Informed Principal," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1767-1797, November.
    2. Inderst, Roman, 2001. "Incentive schemes as a signaling device," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 455-465, April.
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    4. Beaudry, Paul, 1994. "Why an Informed Principal May Leave Rents to an Agent," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(4), pages 821-832, November.
    5. David Martimort & Jean‐Christophe Poudou & Wilfried Sand‐Zantman, 2010. "Contracting For An Innovation Under Bilateral Asymmetric Information," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 324-348, June.
    6. Chade, Hector & Silvers, Randy, 2002. "Informed principal, moral hazard, and the value of a more informative technology," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 291-300, February.
    7. Wagner, Christoph & Mylovanov, Tymofiy & Tröger, Thomas, 2015. "Informed-principal problem with moral hazard, risk neutrality, and no limited liability," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 280-289.
    8. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1992. "The Principal-Agent Relationship with an Informed Principal, II: Common Values," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(1), pages 1-42, January.
    9. Silvers, Randy, 2012. "The value of information in a principal–agent model with moral hazard: The ex post contracting case," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 352-365.
    10. Michael Rothschild & Joseph Stiglitz, 1976. "Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 629-649.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andriy Zapechelnyuk, 2023. "On the equivalence of information design by uninformed and informed principals," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(4), pages 1051-1067, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informed principal; Moral hazard; Menu-contracts; Principal agent;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law

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