Should contract design induce an agent to conduct a precontractual investigation even though, in any case, the agent will become fully informed after the signing of the contract? This paper shows that imperfect investigations might be encouraged. The result stands in contrast to previous...

The dissertation consists of three chapters. The fist two chapters use principal-agent models to analyze optimal contract design under the assumption that the contract can induce the agent to acquire relevant private information. Specifically, Chapter 1 demonstrates the use of stochastic...

We study buyer-optimal information structures under monopoly pricing. The information structure determines how well the buyer learns his valuation and affects, via the induced distribution of posterior valuations, the price charged by the seller. Motivated by the regulation of product...