A Folk Theorem for Repeated Elections with Adverse Selection

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Duggan
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Incentive Compatibility ◽  
Folk Theorem ◽  
Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Strict Concavity

This article establishes a folk theorem for a model of repeated elections with adverse selection: when citizens (voters and politicians) are sufficiently patient, arbitrary policy paths through arbitrarily large regions of the policy space can be supported by a refinement of perfect Bayesian equilibrium. Politicians are policy motivated (so office benefits cannot be used to incentivize policy choices), the policy space is one-dimensional (limiting the dimensionality of the set of utility imputations), and politicians’ preferences are private information (so punishments cannot be targeted to a specific type). The equilibrium construction relies critically on differentiability and strict concavity of citizens’ utility functions. An extension of the arguments allows policy paths to depend on the office holder's type, subject to incentive compatibility constraints.

scholarly journals Outsourcing under incomplete information

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarun Kabiraj ◽  
Uday Bhanu Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Fixed Cost ◽  
Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Plant Level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show that outsourcing can occur as outcome of a separating or pooling perfect Bayesian equilibrium although it is not profitable under complete information. Therefore, asymmetric information can itself be a reason for outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach The present paper constructs a model of two firms interacting in the product market under asymmetric information where one firm has private information about its technological capability, and it has the option to produce inputs in-house or buy inputs from an input market. However, using outsourced inputs involves a fixed cost at the plant level. The model solves for perfect Bayesian equilibrium. Findings There are situations when under complete information, outsourcing of the input will not occur, but, under incomplete information, either only the low-cost type or both high and low-cost types will go for outsourcing, and there always exist reasonable beliefs supporting these equilibria. In particular, when the fixed cost is neither too small not too large, a separating equilibrium occurs in which the low-cost type outsources inputs from the input market but the high-cost type produces in-house; hence, outsourcing signals the firm’s type. Outsourcing by only the high-cost type firm will never occur in equilibrium. Originality/value That incomplete or asymmetric information can itself be a reason for strategic outsourcing is never identified in the literature. The present paper is an attempt to fill this gap and raise the issue of outsourcing in an incomplete information environment.

Epsilon-Efficiency in a Dynamic Partnership with Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vi Cao
Keyword(s):  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Incentive Compatibility ◽  
Current Effort ◽  
Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Division Rule ◽  
Dynamic Partnership ◽  
Division Mechanism

Abstract For a dynamic partnership with adverse selection and moral hazard, we design a direct profit division mechanism that satisfies ϵ-efficiency, periodic Bayesian incentive compatibility, interim individual rationality, and ex-post budget balance. In addition, we design a voting mechanism that implements the profit division rule associated with this direct mechanism in perfect Bayesian equilibrium. For establishing these possibility results, we assume that the partnership exhibits intertemporal complementarities instead of contemporaneous complementarities; equivalently, an agent’s current effort affects other agents’ future optimal efforts instead of current optimal efforts. This modelling assumption fits a wide range of economic settings.

Discretion Rather than Rules: Choice of Instruments to Control Bureaucratic Policy Making

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Gailmard
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Incentive Scheme ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Transfer Payments ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Optimal Action ◽  
Choice Of Instruments ◽  
Levers Of Control

In this paper I investigate the trade-off a legislature faces in the choice of instruments to ensure accountability by bureaucrats with private information. The legislature can either design a state-contingent incentive scheme or “menu law” to elicit the bureau's information or it can simply limit the set of choices open to the bureaucrat and let it choose as it wishes (an action restriction). I show that the optimal action restriction is simply a connected interval of the policy space. However, this class of instruments is not optimal without some sort of limitation on the set of levers of control available to the legislature. I then analyze one such limitation salient in politics, the legislative principal's inability to commit to honor a schedule of (state contingent) policy choices and transfer payments for a menu law. In this case the optimal action restriction outperforms (in terms of the legislature's welfare) the best available menu law.

Cooperative Homo economicus

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Bowles ◽  
Herbert Gintis
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Repeated Games ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Folk Theorem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Correlated Equilibrium ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Game Theoretic

This chapter examines whether recent advances in the theory of repeated games, as exemplified by the so-called folk theorem and related models, address the shortcomings of the self-interest based models in explaining human cooperation. It first provides an overview of folk theorems and their account of evolutionary dynamics before discussing the folk theorem with either imperfect public information or private information. It then considers evolutionarily irrelevant equilibrium as well as the link between social norms and the notion of correlated equilibrium. While the insight that repeated interactions provide opportunities for cooperative individuals to discipline defectors is correct, the chapter argues that none of the game-theoretic models mentioned above is successful. Except under implausible conditions, the cooperative outcomes identified by these models are neither accessible nor persistent, and are thus labeled evolutionarily irrelevant Nash equilibria.

scholarly journals When Salespeople Manage Customer Relationships: Multidimensional Incentives and Private Information

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 749-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minkyung Kim ◽  
K. Sudhir ◽  
Kosuke Uetake ◽  
Rodrigo Canales
Keyword(s):  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Customer Relationship Management ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Relationship Management ◽  
Selection Effect ◽  
Sales Performance ◽  
Customer Relationships ◽  
Customer Relationship

At many firms, incentivized salespeople with private information about customers are responsible for customer relationship management. Although incentives motivate sales performance, private information can induce moral hazard by salespeople to gain compensation at the expense of the firm. The authors investigate the sales performance–moral hazard trade-off in response to multidimensional performance (acquisition and maintenance) incentives in the presence of private information. Using unique panel data on customer loan acquisition and repayments linked to salespeople from a microfinance bank, the authors detect evidence of salesperson private information. Acquisition incentives induce salesperson moral hazard, leading to adverse customer selection, but maintenance incentives moderate it as salespeople recognize the negative effects of acquiring low-quality customers on future payoffs. Critically, without the moderating effect of maintenance incentives, the adverse selection effect of acquisition incentives overwhelms the sales-enhancing effects, clarifying the importance of multidimensional incentives for customer relationship management. Reducing private information (through job transfers) hurts customer maintenance but has greater impact on productivity by moderating adverse selection at acquisition. This article also contributes to the recent literature on detecting and disentangling customer adverse selection and customer moral hazard (defaults) with a new identification strategy that exploits the time-varying effects of salesperson incentives.

scholarly journals Adverse Selection Dynamics in Privately-Produced Safe Debt Markets

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (089) ◽  
pp. 1-60
Author(s):  
Nathan Foley-Fisher ◽  
◽  
Gary Gorton ◽  
Stéphane Verani ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Selection Dynamics ◽  
Debt Markets ◽  
Asset Class ◽  
Investment Grade

Privately-produced safe debt is designed so that there is no adverse selection in trade. This is because no agent finds it profitable to produce private information about the debt’s backing and all agents know this (i.e., it is information-insensitive). But in some macro states, it becomes profitable for some agents to produce private information, and then the debt faces adverse selection when traded (i.e., it becomes information-sensitive). We empirically study these adverse selection dynamics in a very important asset class, collateralized loan obligations, a large symbiotic appendage of the regulated banking system, which finances loans to below investment-grade firms.

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