IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/05-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Intermediation by aid agencies

Author

Listed:
  • Colin Rowat
  • Paul Seabright

Abstract

This paper models aid agencies as financial intermediaries that do not make a financial return to depositors, whose concern is to transfer resources to investor-beneficiaries. This leads to a problem of verifying that the agency is using donations as intended. One solution to this problem is for an agency to employ altruistic workers at below-market wages: altruistic workers, who can monitor the agency's activities, would not work at below-market rates unless it were genuinely transferring resources to beneficiaries. We consider conditions for this solution to be incentive compatible. In a model with pure moral hazard, observability of wages makes incorporation as a not-for-profit firm redundant as a commitment device. In a model with both moral hazard and adverse selection, incorporation as a not-for-profit firm can serve as a costly commitment mechanism reassuring donors against misuse of their funds. Hiring a worker of low ability can also be a valuable commitment device against fraud.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin Rowat & Paul Seabright, 2005. "Intermediation by aid agencies," Discussion Papers 05-16, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    • Handle: RePEc:bir:birmec:05-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.cal.bham.ac.uk/pdf/05-16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glaeser, Edward L. & Shleifer, Andrei, 2001. "Not-for-profit entrepreneurs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 99-115, July.
    2. Svensson, Jakob & Reinikka, Ritva, 2004. "Working for God?," CEPR Discussion Papers 4214, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2005. "Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 616-636, June.
    4. Christopher J. Ruhm & Carey Borkoski, 2003. "Compensation in the Nonprofit Sector," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(4).
    5. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1986. "Price and Advertising Signals of Product Quality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 796-821, August.
    6. H. Naci Mocan & Erdal Tekin, 2003. "Nonprofit Sector and Part-Time Work: An Analysis of Employer-Employee Matched Data on Child Care Workers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 38-50, February.
    7. Patrick Francois, 2003. "Not-For-Profit Provision of Public Services," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 53-61, March.
    8. Handy, Femida & Katz, Eliakim, 1998. "The Wage Differential between Nonprofit Institutions and Corporations: Getting More by Paying Less?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 246-261, June.
    9. William Easterly, 2003. "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 23-48, Summer.
    10. Maggi G. & Rodriguez-Clare A., 1995. "On Countervailing Incentives," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 238-263, June.
    11. Myerson, Roger B., 1982. "Optimal coordination mechanisms in generalized principal-agent problems," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 67-81, June.
    12. Armstrong, Mark & Rochet, Jean-Charles, 1999. "Multi-dimensional screening:: A user's guide," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 959-979, April.
    13. Preston, Anne E, 1989. "The Nonprofit Worker in a For-Profit World," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(4), pages 438-463, October.
    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. Aubert, Cécile & de Janvry, Alain & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2009. "Designing credit agent incentives to prevent mission drift in pro-poor microfinance institutions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 153-162, September.
    2. Hudon, Marek & Traca, Daniel, 2011. "On the Efficiency Effects of Subsidies in Microfinance: An Empirical Inquiry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 966-973, June.
    3. Aldashev, Gani & Verdier, Thierry, 2010. "Goodwill bazaar: NGO competition and giving to development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 48-63, January.
    4. Ghosh, Suman & Van Tassel, Eric, 2011. "Microfinance and competition for external funding," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 168-170, August.
    5. Aubert, Cecile, 2006. "Work incentives and household insurance: Sequential contracting with altruistic individuals and moral hazard," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 82-88, July.
    6. Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2007. "Volunteer hiring, organizational form and the provision of mission-oriented goods," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0707, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    7. Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2007. "Volunteer hiring, organizational form and the provision of mission-oriented goods," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 707, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    8. Verdier, Thierry & Krautheim, Sebastian, 2012. "Globalization, Credence Goods and International Civil Society," CEPR Discussion Papers 9232, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Krautheim, Sebastian & Verdier, Thierry, 2016. "Offshoring with endogenous NGO activism," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 22-41.
    10. Lore Wellens & Marc Jegers, 2017. "Beneficiaries’ participation in development organizations through local partners: A case study in Southern Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 196-213, October.
    11. Michael Vlassopoulos, 2017. "‘Putting a Foot in the Door’: Volunteer Hiring and Organizational Form," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(2), pages 133-162, March.
    12. Ghatak, Maitreesh & Mueller, Hannes, 2011. "Thanks for nothing? Not-for-profits and motivated agents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1-2), pages 94-105, February.
    13. Ghosh, Suman & Van Tassel, Eric, 2013. "Funding microfinance under asymmetric information," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 8-15.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13655 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Burger, Ronelle & Owens, Trudy, 2010. "Promoting Transparency in the NGO Sector: Examining the Availability and Reliability of Self-Reported Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 1263-1277, September.
    16. Verdier, Thierry & Aldashev, Gani, 2007. "NGO Competition and the Markets for Development Donations," CEPR Discussion Papers 6350, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    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. Gregg, Paul & Grout, Paul A. & Ratcliffe, Anita & Smith, Sarah & Windmeijer, Frank, 2011. "How important is pro-social behaviour in the delivery of public services?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 758-766.
    2. Colin Rowat & Paul Seabright, 2004. "Intermediation by aid agencies," Discussion Papers 04-22, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    3. Barigozzi, Francesca & Burani, Nadia, 2019. "Competition for talent when firms' mission matters," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 128-151.
    4. DeVaro, Jed & Maxwell, Nan & Morita, Hodaka, 2017. "Training and intrinsic motivation in nonprofit and for-profit organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 196-213.
    5. Patrick Francois, 2004. "'Making a Difference': Labor Donations in the Production of Public Goods," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 04/093, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    6. Mathieu Narcy, 2009. "Les salariés du secteur associatif sont-ils davantage intrinsèquement motivés que ceux du secteur privé ?," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(2), pages 81-99.
    7. Ghatak, Maitreesh & Mueller, Hannes, 2011. "Thanks for nothing? Not-for-profits and motivated agents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 94-105.
    8. Patrick Francois, 2007. "Making a difference," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(3), pages 714-732, September.
    9. Barry T. Hirsch & David A. Macpherson & Anne E. Preston, 2018. "Nonprofit wages: theory and evidence," Chapters, in: Bruce A. Seaman & Dennis R. Young (ed.), Handbook of Research on Nonprofit Economics and Management, chapter 8, pages 146-179, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Rutherford, Alasdair, 2010. "On the Up: Voluntary Sector Wages in the UK 1998 - 2007," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2010-06, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    11. Jones, Daniel B., 2015. "The supply and demand of motivated labor: When should we expect to see nonprofit wage gaps?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 1-14.
    12. F. Barigozzi & N. Burani, 2016. "Competition Between For-Profit and Non-Profit Firms: Incentives, Workers Self-Selection, and Wage Differentials," Working Papers wp1072, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    13. Michael Vlassopoulos, 2017. "‘Putting a Foot in the Door’: Volunteer Hiring and Organizational Form," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(2), pages 133-162, March.
    14. Binder, Martin, 2016. "“…Do it with joy!” – Subjective well-being outcomes of working in non-profit organizations," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 64-84.
    15. Martin Binder, 2015. "Do it with joy: Subjective well-being outcomes of working in non-profit organizations," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2015-03, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    16. Barigozzi, Francesca & Burani, Nadia, 2016. "Competition and screening with motivated health professionals," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 358-371.
    17. F. Barigozzi & N. Burani, 2014. "Competition and Screening with Skilled and Motivated Workers," Working Papers wp953, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    18. Delfgaauw, Josse & Dur, Robert, 2010. "Managerial talent, motivation, and self-selection into public management," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 654-660, October.
    19. Nathalie Magne, 2017. "Wage inequality in workers’ cooperatives and conventional firms," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 14(2), pages 303-329, December.
    20. Jonathan Meer & Hedieh Tajali, 2023. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on the Nonprofit Sector," NBER Working Papers 31281, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    signalling; non-profit; wage differential; donations; altruism; two-sided market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

    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:bir:birmec:05-16. 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: Oleksandr Talavera (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debhauk.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.