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Delegating the decision-making authority to terminate a sequential project

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  • Tamada, Yasunari
  • Tsai, Tsung-Sheng

Abstract

This paper considers a two-stage project which requires investments to be made by different agents, who have career concerns, at each stage. The principal needs to decide whether the project should be continued or not after the first-stage outcome is realized. The principal can either keep the decision-making authority regarding the termination policy, or else delegate it to one of the agents. With career concerns, the first-stage agent always wants to continue the project, in which case the sunk cost fallacy occurs. On the contrary, the second-stage agent may prefer to stop it voluntarily to protect his reputation. Therefore, when the career concerns are strong, the principal should delegate the authority to the second-stage agent if an early termination of the project is also the best policy for the principal; while if the career concerns are weak, the principal should keep the authority.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamada, Yasunari & Tsai, Tsung-Sheng, 2014. "Delegating the decision-making authority to terminate a sequential project," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 178-194.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:99:y:2014:i:c:p:178-194
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.01.007
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    3. Patrick W Schmitz, 2022. "How (Not) to Purchase Novel Goods and Services: Specific Performance Versus at-will Contracts," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(647), pages 2563-2577.
    4. Fabio Römeis & Fabian Herweg & Daniel Müller, 2022. "Salience Bias and Overwork," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Müller, Daniel & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2021. "The right to quit work: An efficiency rationale for restricting the freedom of contract," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 653-669.
    6. Yasunari Tamada, 2019. "Disclosure of Contract Clauses and Career Concerns," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(3), pages 1968-1978.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    D23; D86; L14; Career concerns; Delegation; Sequential investment; Sunk cost fallacy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

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