Agents are either guided directly by the elicited or communicated preferences of their principals, including both the conditions or states that their principals value and the particular actions the principals prefer that agents use to realize those states (goal priority), or can research clues...

This paper develops a relational contracting model to show how fiat - a principal's ability to dictate her agent's performance - emerges in equilibrium under vertical integration, even when integration does not allocate distinctive formal authority to the principal. In a vertical structure, an...

This chapter in the book PIONEERS OF LAW AND ECONOMICS explores the contributions of Benjamin Klein to law and economics. I explore the intellectual foundations of Klein's pioneering analysis of the hold-up problem, the theory of the firm, vertical restraints, franchising, and the role of...

Applying economic analysis, we explore the potential benefits and risks associated with firm-based and social production models and derive conditions that determine when open or closed innovation models are more appropriate. We contrast the newly emerging "user-generated approach" to innovation...

Most antitrust scholars agree that vertical and horizontal intrabrand restraints such as minimum resale price maintenance and ancillary exclusive territories usually enhance welfare. Nonetheless, there is not universal agreement regarding how, exactly, such restraints have this impact. Following...

This paper analyzes the lease-own decision for water using data on water transactions. Water is transferred through short-term and long-term leases as well as permanent ownership contracts. Water is a unique asset in that its supply is highly variable and its transfer and use affect third...

Economists have applied the methodology of information economics and contract theory (mechanism design) to problems in procurement and regulation. With the standard adverse selection and moral hazard components, the principal should offer a menu of incentive contracts from which the employed...