IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-01c70016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Specific investments and coordination failures

Author

Listed:
  • Concepción Peñarrubia

    (University of Valencia (Spain))

  • Gonzalo Olcina

    (University of Valencia (Spain))

Abstract

This note presents a new result on incomplete contracts. We show that if the different degrees of relation-specificity of the partnerts' investments determines their ex post bargaining position (what Williamson (1985) calls “the fundamental transformation”), it will appear a potential coordination failure. Under plausible conditions, the parties will coordinate in the more inefficient but less risky equilibrium, that is, in the risk-dominant equilibrium in the sense of Harsanyi and Selten (1988).

Suggested Citation

  • Concepción Peñarrubia & Gonzalo Olcina, 2002. "Specific investments and coordination failures," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(2), pages 1-7.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-01c70016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2002/Volume3/EB-01C70016A.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John C. Harsanyi & Reinhard Selten, 1988. "A General Theory of Equilibrium Selection in Games," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262582384, December.
    2. Hart, Oliver & Moore, John, 1990. "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1119-1158, December.
    3. Hanson, Gordon H, 1995. "Incomplete Contracts, Risk, and Ownership," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(2), pages 341-363, May.
    4. John Sutton, 1986. "Non-Cooperative Bargaining Theory: An Introduction," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(5), pages 709-724.
    5. Gonzalo Olcina Vauteren & Amparo Urbano Salvador, 1993. "INTROSPECTION AND EQUILIBRIUM SELECTION IN 2x2 MATRIX GAMES," Working Papers. Serie AD 1993-01, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    6. Gonzalo Olcina, 1997. "Forward Induction In Games With An Outside Option," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 177-192, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Calabuig, Vicente & Olcina, Gonzalo, 2009. "Cooperation and cultural transmission in a coordination game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 188-201, October.
    2. Fabrizio Panebianco, 2016. "The role of persuasion in cultural evolution dynamics," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 63(3), pages 233-258, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:3:y:2002:i:2:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Anke S. Kessler & Christoph Lülfesmann, 2006. "The Theory of Human Capital Revisited: on the Interaction of General and Specific Investments," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 903-923, October.
    3. Chu-Chia S. Lin & Ivan Png, 2003. "Monitoring costs and the mode of international investment," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 261-274, July.
    4. Feltovich, Nick & Swierzbinski, Joe, 2011. "The role of strategic uncertainty in games: An experimental study of cheap talk and contracts in the Nash demand game," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 554-574, May.
    5. Robert Gibbons & John Roberts, 2012. "The Handbook of Organizational Economics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 9889.
    6. Walter Elberfeld, 1997. "Incentive monotonicity and equilibrium selection in 2×2 matrix games," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 279-290, October.
    7. Binmore, Ken & Osborne, Martin J. & Rubinstein, Ariel, 1992. "Noncooperative models of bargaining," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, in: R.J. Aumann & S. Hart (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 179-225, Elsevier.
    8. Gonzalo Olcina, 1997. "Forward Induction In Games With An Outside Option," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 177-192, March.
    9. Woodruff, Christopher, 2002. "Non-contractible investments and vertical integration in the Mexican footwear industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1197-1224, October.
    10. Kerschbamer, Rudolf & Maderner, Nina & Tournas, Yanni, 2002. "Idiosyncratic investments, outside opportunities and the boundaries of the firm," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1119-1141, October.
    11. Yeon-Koo Che & József Sákovics, 2004. "A Dynamic Theory of Holdup," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 1063-1103, July.
    12. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret Slade, 2007. "Vertical Integration and Firm Boundaries: The Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 629-685, September.
    13. Ayse Mumcu, 2006. "Product Complementarity and Investment Incentives: Does Asset Ownership Matter?," Working Papers 2006/05, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    14. Valeria Gattai, 2006. "From the Theory of the Firm to FDI and Internalisation: A Survey," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 65(2), pages 225-262, November.
    15. Ilya Segal & Michael D.Whinston, 2012. "Property Rights [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    16. Antonio Nicita & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2014. "Dixit versus Williamson: the ‘fundamental transformation’ reconsidered," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 439-453, June.
    17. Armando Gomes, "undated". "A Theory of Negotiations and Formation of Coalitions," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 21-99, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    18. David, Alexander, 2001. "Pricing the strategic value of putable securities in liquidity crises," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 63-99, January.
    19. Mumcu, Ayse, 2006. "Production Complementarity and Investment Incentives: Does Asset Ownership Matter?," MPRA Paper 1910, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Sang-Chul Suh & Quan Wen, 2009. "A multi-agent bilateral bargaining model with endogenous protocol," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 40(2), pages 203-226, August.
    21. Antonio Nicita & Massimiliamo Vatiro, 2008. "Incomplete Contracts, Property Rights and Endogenous Outside Options," Department of Economics University of Siena 545, Department of Economics, University of Siena.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C7 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-01c70016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.