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"Yes men", integrity, and the optimal design of incentive contracts

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  • Ewerhart, Christian
  • Schmitz, Patrick W.

Abstract

In a pioneering approach towards the explanation of the phenomenon of "yes man" behavior in organizations, Prendergast (1993) argued that incentive contracts in employment relationships generally make a worker distort his privately acquired information. This would imply that there is a trade-off between inducing a worker to exert costly effort and inducing him to tell the truth. In contrast, we show that with optimally designed contracts, which we term integrity contracts, the worker will both exert effort and report his information truthfully, and that hence the first best can be achieved.
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  • Ewerhart, Christian & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2000. ""Yes men", integrity, and the optimal design of incentive contracts," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 115-125, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:43:y:2000:i:1:p:115-125
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    Cited by:

    1. Agnieszka Rusinowska & Vassili Vergopoulos, 2020. "Ingratiation and Favoritism in Organizations," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 176(3), pages 413-445.
    2. Kräkel, Matthias, 2006. "Firm Size, Economic Situation and Influence Activities," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 16/2006, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    3. Brian D. Knox, 2020. "A strategy map’s effect on the feedback that middle managers pass along to upper management," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 381-404, February.
    4. Ottaviani, Marco & Sorensen, Peter Norman, 2006. "Professional advice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 120-142, January.
    5. Anke Gerber & Corina Haita‐Falah & Andreas Lange, 2018. "The Agency Of Politics And Science," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1543-1561, July.
    6. Christian Laux, 2001. "Delegated Information Acquisition and Capital Budgeting: On the Separation of Project Evaluation and Project Management," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 157(4), pages 591-607, December.
    7. Schmitz, Patrick W, 2001. "The Hold-up Problem and Incomplete Contracts: A Survey of Recent Topics in Contract Theory," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Marco Ottaviani & Peter Norman Sorensen, 2002. "Professional Advice: The Theory of Reputational Cheap Talk," Discussion Papers 02-05, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    9. Grunewald, Andreas & Kräkel, Matthias, 2017. "Fake News," IZA Discussion Papers 11207, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Samuel Häfner & Curtis R. Taylor, 2022. "On young Turks and yes men: optimal contracting for advice," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(1), pages 63-94, March.
    11. Ewerhart Christian, 2015. "Mixed Equilibrium in a Pure Location Game: The Case of n≥4$$n \ge 4$$ Firms," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 457-472, July.
    12. Köhler, Wolfgang R., 2004. "Optimal Incentive Contracts for Experts," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 6/2004, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    13. Christian Ewerhart, 2014. "Mixed equilibrium in a pure location game: the case of n ≥ 4 firms," ECON - Working Papers 168, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.

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    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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