IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/iuiwop/0573.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regulation of Cost and Quality under Yardstick Competition

Author

Listed:
  • Tangerås, Thomas P.

    (The Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

Abstract

This paper analyses simultaneous regulation of cost and quality when firms have private, correlated information about productivity and the regulator receives a signal about quality. It is shown that managerial effort and expenditures on quality are positively correlated in the optimal contract. The higher is firm productivity the more should the firm spend on quality improvement and the more efficiently should it produce. Optimal yardstick competition reduces distortion of both effort and quality. Under product market competition expenditures on quality should be increasing in the firm's own productivity and decreasing in the competitor's productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Tangerås, Thomas P., 2002. "Regulation of Cost and Quality under Yardstick Competition," Working Paper Series 573, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0573
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifn.se/Wfiles/wp/WP573.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emmanuelle Auriol, 2000. "Concurrence par comparaison. Un point de vue normatif," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 51(3), pages 621-634.
    2. Dilip Mookherjee, 1984. "Optimal Incentive Schemes with Many Agents," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 433-446.
    3. Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 2000. "Mechanism Design with Collusion and Correlation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(2), pages 309-342, March.
    4. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1992. "Regulation by Duopoly," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(3), pages 507-533, Fall.
    5. Bengt Holmstrom, 1982. "Moral Hazard in Teams," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 324-340, Autumn.
    6. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    7. Demski, Joel S. & Sappington, David, 1984. "Optimal incentive contracts with multiple agents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 152-171, June.
    8. Emmanuelle Auriol, 1993. "Monopole ou duopole: l'effet de comparaison," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 31, pages 1-31.
    9. Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Procurement and Renegotiation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(2), pages 235-259, April.
    10. Dag Morten Dalen, 1998. "Yardstick Competition and Investment Incentives," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 105-126, March.
    11. Broyles, Robert W. & Rosko, Michael D., 1985. "A qualitative assessment of the medicare prospective payment system," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 20(11), pages 1185-1190, January.
    12. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    13. Joel Sobel, 1999. "A Reexamination of Yardstick Competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 33-60, March.
    14. repec:adr:anecst:y:1993:i:31:p:01 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743, December.
    16. Andrei Shleifer, 1985. "A Theory of Yardstick Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(3), pages 319-327, Autumn.
    17. Auriol, Emmanuelle, 1998. "Deregulation and quality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 169-194, March.
    18. Cremer, Jacques & McLean, Richard P, 1988. "Full Extraction of the Surplus in Bayesian and Dominant Strategy Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1247-1257, November.
    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. Ajodhia, Virendra & Hakvoort, Rudi, 2005. "Economic regulation of quality in electricity distribution networks," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 211-221, September.
    2. Moszoro, Marian, 2010. "Partnerstwo publiczno-prywatne w sferze użyteczności publicznej [Public-Private Partnerships in the Utilities Sector]," MPRA Paper 101917, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Facanha, Luis Otavio & Resende, Marcelo, 2004. "Price cap regulation, incentives and quality:: The case of Brazilian telecommunications," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 133-144, November.

    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. Tangeras, Thomas P., 2002. "Collusion-proof yardstick competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 231-254, February.
    2. Thomas P. Tangerås, 2009. "Yardstick Competition and Quality," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 589-613, June.
    3. Eshien Chong & Freddy Huet, 2009. "Yardstick Competition, Franchise Bidding and Firms’ Incentives to Collude," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 35(1), pages 149-169, September.
    4. Armstrong, Mark & Sappington, David E.M., 2007. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Regulation," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1557-1700, Elsevier.
    5. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sönje Kerrin, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 4035, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Schober, Dominik & Weber, Christoph, 2015. "Refinancing under yardstick regulation with investment cycles: The case of long-lived electricity network assets," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-065, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Soenje Reiche, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 459, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    8. Dominik Schober, 2013. "Refinancing under Yardstick Regulation with Investment Cycles–The Case of Long-Lived Electricity Network Assets," EWL Working Papers 1321, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Jun 2013.
    9. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sonje, 2003. "Dynamic yardstick regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19319, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Faure-Grimaud, A. & Reiche, S., 2006. "Dynamic yardstick mechanisms," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 316-335, February.
    11. TEUSCH, Jonas, 2016. "Merger Incentives Under Yardstick Competition : a Theoretical Model," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2016037, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    12. Boyer, Marcel, 2003. "Competition and the reform of incentive schemes in the regulated sector," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1353-1381, August.
    13. Alessio D’Amato & Laurent Franckx, 2010. "Nonpoint pollution regulation targeted on emission proxies: the role of yardstick schemes," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 12(4), pages 201-218, December.
    14. Jonas Teusch, 2019. "When Efficient Firms Flock Together: Merger Incentives Under Yardstick Competition," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 55(2), pages 237-255, September.
    15. Barlo, Mehmet & Ayca, Ozdogan, 2012. "Team beats collusion," MPRA Paper 37449, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Moszoro Marian W., 2016. "Coasean Quality of Regulated Goods," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 1-13, October.
    17. David Martimort & Philippe De Donder & Etienne Billette De Villemeur, 2005. "An Incomplete Contract Perspective on Public Good Provision," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 149-180, April.
    18. Rosenkranz, Stephanie & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2001. "Vertikale Unternehmenskooperationen," MPRA Paper 6930, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1994. "The New Economics of Regulation Ten Years After," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(3), pages 507-537, May.
    20. Luis Garicano & Tano Santos, 2004. "Referrals," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 499-525, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Yardstick Competition; Quality; Regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:iuiwop:0573. 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: Elisabeth Gustafsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iuiiise.html .

    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.