In this paper, the authors examine the problem of inducing a manager to acquire information that is useful in determining his optimal job assignment but which might also adversel y affect his market value. The authors show that spot contracts are optimal and generate the first-best effort level...

This paper demonstrates how the incentive of manager-equityholders to substitute toward riskier assets, commonly referred to as the "asset substitution problem," is related to the level of observable risk in the firm. When observable and unobservable risks are sufficiently positively correlated,...