A principal decides when to exercise a real option. A biased agent influences this decision by strategically disclosing information. Committing to disclose all information with delay is the optimal way to persuade the principal to wait. Without dynamic commitment, this promise is credible only...

An agent can exert effort to improve the quality of a signal that also depends on his ability. The signal will help him to choose an action, which, in turn will lead to some observable good or bad outcome. Transparency on actions can distort the agent's choices towards quot;smartquot; actions...

This paper studies information aggregation in financial markets with recurrent investor exit and entry. I consider a dynamic general equilibrium model of asset trading with private information and collateral constraints. Investors differ in their aversion to Knightian uncertainty: When...

We consider a standard sequential decision to adopt/buy a good in a herding environment. The setup is same as in Sgroi (2002). Contrary to the basic herding case we introduce a cost that the agents have to pay for the information about their predecessors' actions. All agents receive informative...

This paper explores performance measurement in incentive plans. Based on theory, we argue that differences in the nature of jobs between blue- and white-collar employees lead to differences in incentive systems. We find that performance measurement for white-collar workers is broader in terms of...

A worker's utility may increase in his own income, but envy can make his utility decline with his employer's income. Such behavior may call for high-powered incentives, so that increased effort by the worker little increases the income of his employer. This paper uses a principal-agent model to...

This paper studies how social relationships between managers and employees affect relational incentive contracts. To this end we develop a simple dynamic principal-agent model where both players may have feelings of altruism or spite toward each other. The contract may contain two types of...

I examine optimal incentives and performance measurement in a model where an agent has specific knowledge (in the sense of Jensen and Meckling) about the consequences of his actions for the principal. Contracts can be based both on "input" measures related to the agent's actions, and an "output"...

We use data from a pay reform in an insurance company to contrast different theories of work motivations. The management installed performance pay to boost sales in the customer service centre of the company. The reform was successful. The bonus scheme gave the operators both self-regarding and...

I broadly explore the question by examining several common criticisms of CEO pay through both philosophical and empirical lenses. While some criticisms appear to be unfounded, the analysis shows not only that current compensation practices are problematic both from the standpoint of distributive...