IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v83y2024icp280-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A powerful local government's optimal discretion in simple menu contract of monopoly regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Dan
  • Wang, Jiancheng
  • Hao, Peng
  • Ren, Qiyu

Abstract

We analyse the optimal discretion of a powerful local government (LG) in deciding the instrument choice and setting standards of simple menu contracts (composed of a fixed price and a cost reimbursement) of monopoly regulation. Between the two, a fixed-price contract entails more incentives for efficiency than a cost-reimbursement contract, but ensures more profits for the firm. Due to a preference bias towards the firm's benefits between governments, an incentive reward, offered by the federal government (FG) to the powerful LG with informational advantage of efficiency gain from the regulation, is considered to induce an efficient regulatory policy. We find that under the FG's delegation mechanism, upper-level government conflict leads to a compromised policy as an exchange payoff and additional informational rent to the LG for part of their information value. For the remaining information, the reward is rejected, and the LG has the discretionary power to set policy criteria for simple contracts. The results suggest that bureaucratic political issues still lead to an excessive tendency towards either a fixed price or cost reimbursement scheme, depending on the bias direction of the LG's preferences regarding the monopoly. However, the delegation mechanism of hierarchical bureaucracy can effectively alleviate the influence of policy distortions caused by political factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Dan & Wang, Jiancheng & Hao, Peng & Ren, Qiyu, 2024. "A powerful local government's optimal discretion in simple menu contract of monopoly regulation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 280-300.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:83:y:2024:i:c:p:280-300
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.06.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624001577
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2024.06.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Using Cost Observation to Regulate Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 614-641, June.
    2. Yolande Hiriart & David Martimort, 2012. "How much discretion for risk regulators?," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(2), pages 283-314, June.
    3. Rajeev Goel & Michael Nelson, 2011. "Government fragmentation versus fiscal decentralization and corruption," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 471-490, September.
    4. Fahad Khalil & Doyoung Kim & Jacques Lawarrée, 2013. "Contracts offered by bureaucrats," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 44(4), pages 686-711, December.
    5. Iossa, Elisabetta & Martimort, David, 2016. "Corruption in PPPs, incentives and contract incompleteness," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 85-100.
    6. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi & David Martimort, 2013. "The Cost of Contract Renegotiation: Evidence from the Local Public Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2352-2383, October.
    7. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2017. "Economic Efficiency and Political Capture in Public Service Contracts," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 1-38, March.
    8. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Rochet, Jean-Charles, 1998. "Regulation of a Risk Averse Firm," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 149-173, November.
    9. Tapas Kundu & Tore Nilssen, 2022. "Delegating pollution permits," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(2), pages 457-487, April.
    10. Garrett, Daniel F., 2014. "Robustness of simple menus of contracts in cost-based procurement," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 631-641.
    11. Tapas Kundu & Tore Nilssen, 2020. "Delegation of Regulation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 445-482, September.
    12. Achim Voss & Jörg Lingens, 2018. "What's the damage? Environmental regulation with policy‐motivated bureaucrats," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(4), pages 613-633, August.
    13. Baron, David P & Myerson, Roger B, 1982. "Regulating a Monopolist with Unknown Costs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 911-930, July.
    14. Vogelsang, Ingo, 2002. "Incentive Regulation and Competition in Public Utility Markets: A 20-Year Perspective," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 5-27, July.
    15. An, Yonghong & Hong, Shengjie & Zhang, Daiqiang, 2023. "A structural analysis of simple contracts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(2).
    16. William P. Rogerson, 2003. "Simple Menus of Contracts in Cost-Based Procurement and Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 919-926, June.
    17. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743, December.
    18. Kopsakangas-Savolainen, Maria & Svento, Rauli, 2010. "Comparing welfare effects of different regulation schemes: An application to the electricity distribution industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7370-7377, November.
    19. Joanna Piechucka, 2021. "Cost efficiency and endogenous regulatory choices: evidence from the transport industry in France," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 25-46, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. An, Yonghong & Hong, Shengjie & Zhang, Daiqiang, 2023. "A structural analysis of simple contracts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(2).
    2. Tapas Kundu & Tore Nilssen, 2020. "Delegation of Regulation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 445-482, September.
    3. Armstrong, Mark & Sappington, David E.M., 2007. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Regulation," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1557-1700, Elsevier.
    4. Ismail Saglam, 2024. "The Bayesian approach to monopoly regulation after 40 years," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 108-136, June.
    5. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi & David Martimort, 2013. "The Cost of Contract Renegotiation: Evidence from the Local Public Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2352-2383, October.
    6. Ingo Vogelsang, 2006. "Electricity Transmission Pricing and Performance-based Regulation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 97-126.
    7. Campbell, Alrick, 2018. "Cap prices or cap revenues? The dilemma of electric utility networks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 802-812.
    8. Fiocco, Raffaele & Guo, Dongyu, 2020. "Regulatory risk, vertical integration, and upstream investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Garrett, Daniel F., 2020. "Payoff Implications of Incentive Contracting," TSE Working Papers 20-1140, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    10. Larrauri, Iván M. Lucich, 2012. "Incentive scheme based on investment plan compliance for public water utilities in Peru," UFZ Discussion Papers 02/2012, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    11. Yonghong An & Daiqiang Zhang, 2018. "Simple menus of cost‐based contracts with monotone optimal effort," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(5), pages 742-756, October.
    12. Bogetoft, Peter & Eskesen, Anita, 2022. "Balancing information rents and service differentiation in utility regulation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    13. Isabelle Brocas, 2005. "Multistage Contracting with Applications to R&D and Insurance Policies," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 7(2), pages 317-346, May.
    14. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sönje Kerrin, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 4035, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. De Chiara, Alessandro & Livio, Luca & Ponce, Jorge, 2018. "Flexible and mandatory banking supervision," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 86-104.
    16. Emmanuelle Auriol & Pierre M. Picard, 2009. "Government Outsourcing: Public Contracting with Private Monopoly," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(540), pages 1464-1493, October.
    17. Raffaele Fiocco & Roland Strausz, 2015. "Consumer Standards as a Strategic Device to Mitigate Ratchet Effects in Dynamic Regulation," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 550-569, September.
    18. Buso, Marco & Dosi, Cesare & Moretto, Michele, 2023. "Dynamic Regulation of Public Franchises with Imperfectly Correlated Demand Shocks," FEEM Working Papers 330499, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Sengupta, Abhijit & Tauman, Yair, 2011. "Inducing efficiency in oligopolistic markets with increasing returns to scale," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 95-100, September.
    20. Deneckere, Raymond & de Palma, André & Leruth, Luc, 2019. "Risk sharing in procurement," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 173-220.

    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:eee:ecanpo:v:83:y:2024:i:c:p:280-300. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    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.