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Optimal Contract Mechanisms for Principal-Agent Problems with Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection

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  • Page, F H, Jr

Abstract

We examine the problem of incentive compatibility and mechanism design for incomplete information principal-agent problems. Allowing for risk aversion on the part of the principal and agent, we show the existence of an optimal, incentive compatible contract selection mechanism for the principal under conditions of moral hazard and adverse selection. Since we assume that the contract set is a function space of state contingent contracts, and that the set of agent types is uncountable, the set of contract selection mechanisms becomes infinite dimensional. Hence, novel existence arguments are required. Our existence result extends those of Grossman and Hart [10] and Page [23] to an infinite dimensional setting with incomplete information.

Suggested Citation

  • Page, F H, Jr, 1991. "Optimal Contract Mechanisms for Principal-Agent Problems with Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 1(4), pages 323-338, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:1:y:1991:i:4:p:323-38
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Page, Frank Jr., 1987. "The existence of optimal contracts in the principal-agent model," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 157-167, April.
    2. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Using Cost Observation to Regulate Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 614-641, June.
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    6. Picard, Pierre, 1987. "On the design of incentive schemes under moral hazard and adverse selection," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 305-331, August.
    7. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1983. "An Analysis of the Principal-Agent Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(1), pages 7-45, January.
    8. Nowak, Andrzej S. & Szajowski, Krzysztof, 1998. "Nonzero-sum Stochastic Games," MPRA Paper 19995, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 1999.
    9. Bengt Holmstrom, 1979. "Moral Hazard and Observability," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 74-91, Spring.
    10. Yannelis, Nicholas C., 1990. "On the upper and lower semicontinuity of the Aumann integral," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 373-389.
    11. HOLMSTROM, Bengt, 1979. "Moral hazard and observability," LIDAM Reprints CORE 379, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    12. R. Preston McAfee & John McMillan, 1987. "Competition for Agency Contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(2), pages 296-307, Summer.
    13. David P. Baron & David Besanko, 1987. "Monitoring, Moral Hazard, Asymmetric Information, and Risk Sharing in Procurement Contracting," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(4), pages 509-532, Winter.
    14. C. J. Himmelberg & T. Parthasarathy & F. S. VanVleck, 1976. "Optimal Plans for Dynamic Programming Problems," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 1(4), pages 390-394, November.
    15. Green, Jerry R, 1973. "Temporary General Equilibrium in a Sequential Trading Model with Spot and Futures Transactions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(6), pages 1103-1123, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Strausz, Roland, 2006. "Deterministic versus stochastic mechanisms in principal-agent models," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 306-314, May.
    2. Julio Backhoff-Veraguas & Patrick Beissner & Ulrich Horst, 2019. "Robust Contracting in General Contract Spaces," Papers 1910.12516, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.
    3. Nicol'as Hern'andez Santib'a~nez & Dylan Possamai & Chao Zhou, 2017. "Bank monitoring incentives under moral hazard and adverse selection," Papers 1701.05864, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2019.
    4. Aloisio Pessoa_de_Araujo & Humberto L. Moreira, 2000. "Adverse Selection Problems without The Single Crossing Property," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1874, Econometric Society.
    5. Nicolás Hernández Santibáñez & Dylan Possamaï & Chao Zhou, 2020. "Bank monitoring incentives under moral hazard and adverse selection," Post-Print hal-01435460, HAL.
    6. Cai, W. & Singham, D.I., 2018. "A principal–agent problem with heterogeneous demand distributions for a carbon capture and storage system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 239-256.
    7. Yu Chen, 2019. "Monotonicity in optimal mechanisms in general quasi-linear environments with a continuum of types," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 7(2), pages 277-290, December.
    8. Monteiro, Paulo K. & Page Jr., Frank H., 1998. "Optimal selling mechanisms for multiproduct monopolists: incentive compatibility in the presence of budget constraints," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 473-502, November.
    9. Bo Chen & Yu Chen & David Rietzke, 2020. "Simple contracts under observable and hidden actions," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(4), pages 1023-1047, June.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5371 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Page Jr., Frank H., 1998. "Existence of optimal auctions in general environments," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 389-418, May.
    12. Nicolás Hernández Santibáñez & Dylan Possamaï & Chao Zhou, 2020. "Bank Monitoring Incentives Under Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 988-1035, March.
    13. Rongzhu Ke & Xinyi Xu, 2023. "The existence of an optimal deterministic contract in moral hazard problems," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(2), pages 375-416, August.
    14. Julio Backhoff-Veraguas & Patrick Beissner & Ulrich Horst, 2022. "Robust contracting in general contract spaces," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(4), pages 917-945, June.
    15. Carlier, G. & Dana, R.-A., 2005. "Existence and monotonicity of solutions to moral hazard problems," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 826-843, November.
    16. Nicolás Hernández Santibáñez & Dylan Possamaï & Chao Zhou, 2017. "Bank monitoring incentives under moral hazard and adverse selection," Working Papers hal-01435460, HAL.
    17. Theilen, Bernd, 2003. "Simultaneous moral hazard and adverse selection with risk averse agents," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 283-289, May.

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