Contract law is stuck in a loop of path dependency and stale precedent. Its metaphors, like “the meeting of the minds,” are today laughably implausible. Its values, like “consent,” have been stripped of any real meaning. No one reads or understands the overwhelming majority of contracts...

It is well established that an agent’s act binds the principal only if the agent has actual or apparent authority, or if the principal ratifies the unauthorized act. But confusion persists as to the legal status of the unauthorized agreement between the agent (purporting to act for the...

We argue that recent participative budgeting experiments designed to extend agency theory reveal the effects of responsibility, transparency, and accountability. We define these three theoretical constructs and present two experiments designed to isolate their main and interactive effects. In...

We examine differences in audit scope between family and non-family firms in Israel, using a unique database that includes both external and internal audit fees, hours, and billing rates. Consistent with prior literature, we argue that the number of audit hours reflects an auditor’s effort,...

In November 2020, Apple announced a reduction in the royalty rate applied to small app developers from 30% to 15%. In March 2021, Google followed suit committing to a similar reform. We analyze the implications of these reforms for the distribution of app quality with a stylized model that...

We conduct a laboratory experiment to study how locus of control operates through people's preferences and beliefs to influence their decisions. Using the principal-agent setting of the delegation game, we test four key channels that conceptually link locus of control to decision-making: (i)...

The project of bolstering the administrative state’s perceived legitimacy is central to administrative law. To enhance agencies’ legitimacy with the public, generations of judges and scholars have variously called for changes designed to insulate technocrats from political influence, involve...

Outsourcing public services to private providers is heralded for increasing government efficiency. Yet, outsourcing also offers opportunities to circumvent employment regulations in the public sector. The praised flexibility that private contractors have to hire employees can also be used to...

In a multi-agent setting, we study the optimal design of the monitoring and compensation scheme to uniquely implement work when a limited number of contractible messages are available. When only two messages can be used, the optimal incentive contract features two sub-teams competing for a...

In this experimental study, we compare the effects of a compensation scheme based on Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE) and a compensation scheme based on Absolute Performance Evaluation (APE) on decision-making in a market game. To this end, we conduct an online experiment using the strategy...