IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormoor/v44y2019i2p440-467.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Tale of a Principal and Many, Many Agents

Author

Listed:
  • Romuald Elie

    (Université Paris–Est Marne–la–Vallée, Champs–sur–Marne 77454 Marne–la–Vallée CEDEX 2, France)

  • Thibaut Mastrolia

    (CMAP, École Polytechnique, Université Paris Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau, France)

  • Dylan Possamaï

    (Columbia University, New York, New York 10027)

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate a moral hazard problem in finite time with lump-sum and continuous payments, involving infinitely many agents with mean-field type interactions, hired by one principal. By reinterpreting the mean-field game faced by each agent in terms of a mean-field forward-backward stochastic differential equation (FBSDE), we are able to rewrite the principal’s problem as a control problem of the McKean-Vlasov stochastic differential equations. We review one general approach to tackling it, introduced recently using dynamic programming and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB for short) equations, and mention a second one based on the stochastic Pontryagin maximum principle. We solve completely and explicitly the problem in special cases, going beyond the usual linear-quadratic framework. We finally show in our examples that the optimal contract in the N -players’ model converges to the mean-field optimal contract when the number of agents goes to +∞.

Suggested Citation

  • Romuald Elie & Thibaut Mastrolia & Dylan Possamaï, 2019. "A Tale of a Principal and Many, Many Agents," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 440-467, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormoor:v:44:y:2019:i:2:p:440-467
    DOI: 10.1287/moor.2018.0931
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/moor.2018.0931
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/moor.2018.0931?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boualem Djehiche & Peter Helgesson, 2015. "The Principal-Agent Problem With Time Inconsistent Utility Functions," Papers 1503.05416, arXiv.org.
    2. Patrick Bolton & Mathias Dewatripont, 2005. "Contract Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262025760, April.
    3. Thibaut Mastrolia, 2017. "Moral hazard in welfare economics: on the advantage of Planner's advices to manage employees' actions," Working Papers hal-01504473, HAL.
    4. A. Bensoussan & K. Sung & S. Yam, 2013. "Linear–Quadratic Time-Inconsistent Mean Field Games," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 537-552, December.
    5. Jakša Cvitanić & Dylan Possamaï & Nizar Touzi, 2017. "Moral Hazard in Dynamic Risk Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3328-3346, October.
    6. Green, Jerry R & Stokey, Nancy L, 1983. "A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(3), pages 349-364, June.
    7. Dilip Mookherjee, 1984. "Optimal Incentive Schemes with Many Agents," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 433-446.
    8. Jakša Cvitanić & Dylan Possamaï & Nizar Touzi, 2018. "Dynamic programming approach to principal–agent problems," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-37, January.
    9. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1987. "Aggregation and Linearity in the Provision of Intertemporal Incentives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 303-328, March.
    10. Demski, Joel S. & Sappington, David, 1984. "Optimal incentive contracts with multiple agents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 152-171, June.
    11. Hyeng Keun Koo & Gyoocheol Shim & Jaeyoung Sung, 2008. "Optimal Multi‐Agent Performance Measures For Team Contracts," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 649-667, October.
    12. Thibaut Mastrolia, 2017. "Moral hazard in welfare economics: on the advantage of Planner's advices to manage employees' actions," Papers 1706.01254, arXiv.org.
    13. N. El Karoui & S. Peng & M. C. Quenez, 1997. "Backward Stochastic Differential Equations in Finance," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 1-71, January.
    14. Schattler, Heinz & Sung, Jaeyoung, 1997. "On optimal sharing rules in discrete-and continuous-time principal-agent problems with exponential utility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 21(2-3), pages 551-574.
    15. Buckdahn, Rainer & Li, Juan & Peng, Shige, 2009. "Mean-field backward stochastic differential equations and related partial differential equations," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 119(10), pages 3133-3154, October.
    16. Jaeyoung Sung, 1995. "Linearity with Project Selection and Controllable Diffusion Rate in Continuous-Time Principal-Agent Problems," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(4), pages 720-743, Winter.
    17. Xing, Hao & Žitković, Gordan, 2018. "A class of globally solvable Markovian quadratic BSDE systems and applications," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 73440, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    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. Herty, Michael & Steffensen, Sonja & Thünen, Anna, 2022. "Multiscale control of Stackelberg games," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 468-488.
    2. René Carmona & Gökçe Dayanıklı & Mathieu Laurière, 2022. "Mean Field Models to Regulate Carbon Emissions in Electricity Production," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 897-928, September.
    3. Robert Denkert & Ulrich Horst, 2024. "Extended mean-field games with multi-dimensional singular controls and non-linear jump impact," Papers 2402.09317, arXiv.org.
    4. Bastien Baldacci & Philippe Bergault, 2021. "Optimal incentives in a limit order book: a SPDE control approach," Papers 2112.00375, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2022.
    5. Xiang Yu & Yuchong Zhang & Zhou Zhou, 2020. "Teamwise Mean Field Competitions," Papers 2006.14472, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    6. Dena Firoozi & Arvind V Shrivats & Sebastian Jaimungal, 2021. "Principal agent mean field games in REC markets," Papers 2112.11963, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    7. Emma Hubert & Thibaut Mastrolia & Dylan Possamai & Xavier Warin, 2020. "Incentives, lockdown, and testing: from Thucydides's analysis to the COVID-19 pandemic," Papers 2009.00484, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    8. Xie, Yimei & Ding, Chuan & Li, Yang & Wang, Kaihong, 2023. "Optimal incentive contract in continuous time with different behavior relationships between agents," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Rene Carmona, 2020. "Applications of Mean Field Games in Financial Engineering and Economic Theory," Papers 2012.05237, arXiv.org.
    10. René Carmona, 2022. "The influence of economic research on financial mathematics: Evidence from the last 25 years," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 85-101, January.
    11. Camilo Hern'andez & Dylan Possamai, 2023. "Time-inconsistent contract theory," Papers 2303.01601, arXiv.org.
    12. Marcel Nutz & Yuchong Zhang, 2021. "Mean Field Contest with Singularity," Papers 2103.04219, arXiv.org.
    13. Arvind V. Shrivats & Dena Firoozi & Sebastian Jaimungal, 2022. "A mean‐field game approach to equilibrium pricing in solar renewable energy certificate markets," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 779-824, July.
    14. René Carmona & Peiqi Wang, 2021. "A Probabilistic Approach to Extended Finite State Mean Field Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 471-502, May.
    15. Daniel Krv{s}ek & Dylan Possamai, 2023. "Randomisation with moral hazard: a path to existence of optimal contracts," Papers 2311.13278, arXiv.org.
    16. Steven Campbell & Yichao Chen & Arvind Shrivats & Sebastian Jaimungal, 2021. "Deep Learning for Principal-Agent Mean Field Games," Papers 2110.01127, arXiv.org.
    17. Dylan Possamai & Nizar Touzi, 2020. "Is there a Golden Parachute in Sannikov's principal-agent problem?," Papers 2007.05529, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2022.

    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. Romuald Elie & Dylan Possamai, 2016. "Contracting theory with competitive interacting agents," Papers 1605.08099, arXiv.org.
    2. Romuald Élie & Emma Hubert & Thibaut Mastrolia & Dylan Possamaï, 2021. "Mean–field moral hazard for optimal energy demand response management," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 399-473, January.
    3. Kaitong Hu & Zhenjie Ren & Junjian Yang, 2019. "Principal-agent problem with multiple principals," Working Papers hal-02088486, HAL.
    4. Romuald Elie & Emma Hubert & Thibaut Mastrolia & Dylan Possamai, 2019. "Mean-field moral hazard for optimal energy demand response management," Papers 1902.10405, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2020.
    5. Thibaut Mastrolia & Zhenjie Ren, 2018. "Principal-Agent Problem with Common Agency without Communication," Working Papers hal-01534611, HAL.
    6. Camilo Hern'andez & Dylan Possamai, 2023. "Time-inconsistent contract theory," Papers 2303.01601, arXiv.org.
    7. Jakša Cvitanić & Dylan Possamaï & Nizar Touzi, 2018. "Dynamic programming approach to principal–agent problems," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-37, January.
    8. Thibaut Mastrolia & Dylan Possamai, 2015. "Moral hazard under ambiguity," Papers 1511.03616, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2016.
    9. Qi Luo & Romesh Saigal, 2020. "Dynamic Multiagent Incentive Contracts: Existence, Uniqueness, and Implementation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Thibaut Mastrolia & Zhenjie Ren, 2017. "Principal-Agent Problem with Common Agency without Communication," Papers 1706.02936, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2018.
    11. Jakv{s}a Cvitani'c & Dylan Possamai & Nizar Touzi, 2015. "Dynamic programming approach to principal-agent problems," Papers 1510.07111, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2017.
    12. Jessica Martin & Stéphane Villeneuve, 2023. "Risk-sharing and optimal contracts with large exogenous risks," Post-Print hal-04164688, HAL.
    13. Fleckinger, Pierre, 2012. "Correlation and relative performance evaluation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 93-117.
    14. Barlo, Mehmet & Özdog˜an, Ayça, 2014. "Optimality of linearity with collusion and renegotiation," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 46-52.
    15. Dena Firoozi & Arvind V Shrivats & Sebastian Jaimungal, 2021. "Principal agent mean field games in REC markets," Papers 2112.11963, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    16. Barlo, Mehmet & Ayca, Ozdogan, 2012. "Team beats collusion," MPRA Paper 37449, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Cvitanic Jaksa & Wan Xuhu & Zhang Jianfeng, 2008. "Principal-Agent Problems with Exit Options," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-43, October.
    18. Emma Hubert, 2023. "Continuous-time incentives in hierarchies," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 605-661, July.
    19. Emma Hubert, 2020. "Continuous-time incentives in hierarchies," Papers 2007.10758, arXiv.org.
    20. Jessica Martin & Stéphane Villeneuve, 2023. "Risk-sharing and optimal contracts with large exogenous risks," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 46(1), pages 1-43, June.

    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:inm:ormoor:v:44:y:2019:i:2:p:440-467. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.