Robustness and Linear Contracts

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Carroll, Gabriel
• 署名单位: Stanford University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20131159
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 536-563
• 关键词: Moral hazard

摘要

We consider a moral hazard problem where the principal is uncertain as to what the agent can and cannot do: she knows some actions available to the agent, but other, unknown actions may also exist. The principal demands robustness, evaluating possible contracts by their worst-case performance, over unknown actions the agent might potentially take. The model assumes risk-neutrality and limited liability, and no other functional form assumptions. Very generally, the optimal contract is linear. The model thus offers a new explanation for linear contracts in practice. It also introduces a flexible modeling approach for moral hazard under nonquantifiable uncertainty.