A stochastic process impinges on an agent and a principal in distinct ways. From the agent's perspective the process is noise that interferes with his perception of productivity states, leading him to sometimes take actions that are in retrospect mistaken. From the principal's perspective the...

A principal has a stochastically evolving target that he wishes an agent to repeatedly hit with his effort. The agent does not obtain utility from hitting the target and therefore attempts to shirk; the agent's utility is determined by a second process that symmetrically is of no use to the...