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Distinguishing incentive from selection effects in auction-determined contracts

Author

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  • Laurent Lamy

    (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Manasa Patnam

    (International Monetary Fund (IMF))

  • Michael Visser

    (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper develops a novel approach to estimate how contract and principal-agent characteristics influence a post-auction outcome when the matching between agents and principals derives from an auction process. We propose a control-function approach to account jointly for the endogeneity of contracts and matching. This consists of, first, estimating the primitives of an interdependent values auction model-which is shown to be non-parametrically identified from the bidding data-second, constructing control functions based on the distribution of the unobserved private signals conditional on the auction outcome. A Monte Carlo study shows that our augmented outcome equation corrects the endogeneity biases well, even in small samples. We apply our methodology to a labor market application and estimate the effect of sports players' auction-determined wages on their individual performances. We also use our structural estimates to evaluate the strength of matching inefficiencies and assess counterfactual reservation wage policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurent Lamy & Manasa Patnam & Michael Visser, 2023. "Distinguishing incentive from selection effects in auction-determined contracts," Post-Print hal-04382099, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04382099
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2022.10.003
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04382099
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