IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v16y2011i2d10.1007_s11142-011-9142-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the optimal use of loose monitoring in agencies

Author

Listed:
  • Qi Chen

    (Duke University)

  • Thomas Hemmer

    (Rice University)

  • Yun Zhang

    (George Washington University School of Business)

Abstract

We study the governance implications of firms being privately informed of their potential productivity before contracting with an agent to supply unobservable effort. We show that it can be optimal for high potential firms to have “loose monitoring” in the sense that the monitoring system is less perfect than what is implied by a standard agency model a la Holmstrom (The Bell J Econ 10:74–91, 1979). Loose monitoring is used to achieve separation among different types of firms such that firms with low potential do not have incentives to imitate contracts offered by high potential firms. Our findings imply that although loose monitoring may be a symptom of firms squandering scarce resources provided by investors, it can also arise as an optimal contracting arrangement.

Suggested Citation

  • Qi Chen & Thomas Hemmer & Yun Zhang, 2011. "On the optimal use of loose monitoring in agencies," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 328-354, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:16:y:2011:i:2:d:10.1007_s11142-011-9142-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-011-9142-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-011-9142-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-011-9142-y?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.

    More about this item

    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
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

    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:spr:reaccs:v:16:y:2011:i:2:d:10.1007_s11142-011-9142-y. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.