IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ven/wpaper/2006_15.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Delegation Versus Centralization: The Role of Externalities

Author

Listed:
  • Sergio Currarini

    (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca� Foscari)

  • Francesco Feri

    (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca� Foscari)

Abstract

We study a simple contracting game with a principal and two agents. Contracts exert an externalities on non contractors. The principal can either contract both agents in a centralized manner, or delegate one agent to contract the other. We show that the choice of the principal depends on the sign of the externality. If this is positive, the principal prefers to delegate as long as the agency costs are not too high; if the externality is negative, the principal prefers to centralize for all sizes of agency costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Currarini & Francesco Feri, 2006. "Delegation Versus Centralization: The Role of Externalities," Working Papers 2006_15, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    • Handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2006_15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.unive.it/pag/fileadmin/user_upload/dipartimenti/economia/doc/Pubblicazioni_scientifiche/working_papers/2006/WP_DSE_CurrariniFeri_15_06.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2006
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Genicot, Garance & Ray, Debraj, 2006. "Contracts and externalities: How things fall apart," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 71-100, November.
    2. Dilip Mookherjee & Masatoshi Tsumagari, 2004. "The Organization of Supplier Networks: Effects of Delegation and Intermediation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 1179-1219, July.
    3. Ilya Segal, 1999. "Contracting with Externalities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 337-388.
    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. Sergio Currarini & Carmen Marchiori & Alessandro Tavoni, 2016. "Network Economics and the Environment: Insights and Perspectives," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(1), pages 159-189, September.

    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. Johannes Münster & Markus Reisinger, 2021. "Sequencing Bilateral Negotiations with Externalities," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 096, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    2. Pagnozzi, Marco & Piccolo, Salvatore & Reisinger, Markus, 2021. "Vertical contracting with endogenous market structure," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    3. Bloch, Francis & Gomes, Armando, 2006. "Contracting with externalities and outside options," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 172-201, March.
    4. Raphaël Soubeyran, 2019. "Technology adoption and pro-social preferences," Working Papers halshs-02291905, HAL.
    5. Carsten Helm & Franz Wirl, 2011. "International Environmental Agreements: Incentive Contracts with Multilateral Externalities," Working Papers V-336-11, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2011.
    6. Sergio Currarini & Carmen Marchiori & Alessandro Tavoni, 2016. "Network Economics and the Environment: Insights and Perspectives," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(1), pages 159-189, September.
    7. Bård Harstad & Torben K. Mideksa, 2017. "Conservation Contracts and Political Regimes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1708-1734.
    8. Belhaj, Mohamed & Deroïan, Frédéric, 2019. "Group targeting under networked synergies," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 29-46.
    9. Jean-Etienne de Bettignies & Bulat Gainullin & Hua Fang Liu & David T. Robinson, 2018. "The Effects of Downstream Competition on Upstream Innovation and Licensing," NBER Working Papers 25166, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Raphaël Soubeyran, 2019. "Incentives, pro-social preferences and discrimination," CEE-M Working Papers hal-02056347, CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro.
    11. Iaryczower, Matias & Oliveros, Santiago, 2023. "Collective hold-up," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 18(3), July.
    12. repec:old:wpaper:336-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Matias Iaryczower & Santiago Oliveros, 2017. "Competing for Loyalty: The Dynamics of Rallying Support," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(10), pages 2990-3005, October.
    14. repec:zbw:hohpro:336-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Chen, Ying & Zápal, Jan, 2022. "Sequential vote buying," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    16. Harstad, Bård, 2016. "The market for conservation and other hostages," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 124-151.
    17. Krasteva, Silvana & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2012. "On the role of confidentiality and deadlines in bilateral negotiations," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 714-730.
    18. Alexey Kushnir & Shuo Liu, 2019. "On the equivalence of Bayesian and dominant strategy implementation for environments with nonlinear utilities," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(3), pages 617-644, April.
    19. Yang Zhang & Ying-Ju Chen, 2020. "Optimal Nonlinear Pricing in Social Networks Under Asymmetric Network Information," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 818-833, May.
    20. Galasso, Alberto, 2008. "Coordination and bargaining power in contracting with externalities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 558-570, November.
    21. repec:esx:essedp:768 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Galasso, Alberto, 2010. "Over-confidence may reduce negotiation delay," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 716-733, December.
    23. Sharon Novak & Scott Stern, 2009. "Complementarity Among Vertical Integration Decisions: Evidence from Automobile Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(2), pages 311-332, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contracts; Externalities; Centralization; Delegation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • C71 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Cooperative Games
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

    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:ven:wpaper:2006_15. 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: Geraldine Ludbrook (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dsvenit.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.