IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxecpp/v63y2011i3p523-548.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monitoring subcontracting in a suppliers' hierarchy

Author

Listed:
  • Michela Cella

Abstract

Consider the following contractual hierarchy: a principal who contracts with a contractor below her who then contracts with a subcontractor. The principal requires goods made from both firms in equal proportions. The question we study is whether, at zero cost, the principal would wish to monitor the contract between the subcontractor and contractor. Without monitoring the contractor will determine the type of the subcontractor. Hence, when contracting with the principal he can extract an information rent on this knowledge. Monitoring would reveal the subcontractor type and so lower the principal's bill. However, if the principal monitors the contract between contractor and subcontractor then he may prefer to not screen the subcontractor. So, the contractor must be offered an incentive to screen below. The paper shows that the second of these costs is smaller for a range of parameter values, so that monitoring and incentivizing screening is cheaper than not monitoring. Copyright 2011 Oxford University Press 2011 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Michela Cella, 2011. "Monitoring subcontracting in a suppliers' hierarchy," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 63(3), pages 523-548, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:63:y:2011:i:3:p:523-548
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpr005
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myerson, Roger B, 1983. "Mechanism Design by an Informed Principal," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1767-1797, November.
    2. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 2003. "Collusion, Delegation and Supervision with Soft Information," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 253-279.
    3. Dilip Mookherjee & Masatoshi Tsumagari, 2004. "The Organization of Supplier Networks: Effects of Delegation and Intermediation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 1179-1219, July.
    4. Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 1997. "Collusion under Asymmetric Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(4), pages 875-912, July.
    5. David P. Baron & David Besanko, 1992. "Information, Control, and Organizational Structure," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(2), pages 237-275, June.
    6. Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 2000. "Mechanism Design with Collusion and Correlation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(2), pages 309-342, March.
    7. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1990. "The Principal-Agent Relationship with an Informed Principal: The Case of Private Values," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(2), pages 379-409, March.
    8. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Martimort, David, 2001. "On some agency costs of intermediated contracting," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 75-82, April.
    9. Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 1998. "Collusion and Delegation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 280-305, Summer.
    10. Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Hierarchies and Bureaucracies: On the Role of Collusion in Organizations," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 181-214, Fall.
    11. Baron, David P & Besanko, David, 1992. "Information, Control, and Organizational Structure," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(2), pages 237-275, Summer.
    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. Dequiedt, Vianney & Martimort, David, 2004. "Delegated monitoring versus arm's-length contracting," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 951-981, September.
    2. Jonathan Treussard, 2005. "Life-Cycle Consumption Plans and Portfolio Policies in a Heath-Jarrow-Morton Economy," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2005-033, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    3. Celik, Gorkem, 2009. "Mechanism design with collusive supervision," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 69-95, January.
    4. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 2000. "A Theory of Supervision with Endogenous Transaction Costs," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 1(2), pages 231-263, November.
    5. Asseyer, Andreas, 2016. "Optimal Information Disclosure and Collusion," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145779, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Sergei Severinov, 2008. "The value of information and optimal organization," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(1), pages 238-265, March.
    7. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 2003. "Collusion, Delegation and Supervision with Soft Information," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 253-279.
    8. Choe, Chongwoo & Ishiguro, Shingo, 2008. "On the (Sub)optimality of Multi-tier Hierarchies: Coordination versus Motivation," MPRA Paper 13451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Martimort, David & Pouyet, Jerome, 2008. "To build or not to build: Normative and positive theories of public-private partnerships," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 393-411, March.
    10. Dongsoo Shin, 2007. "Contracts under Wage Compression: A Case of Beneficial Collusion," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(1), pages 143-157, July.
    11. Chongwoo Choe & In-Uck Park, 2008. "Information Gathering, Delegated Contracting And Corporate Hierarchies," Monash Economics Working Papers 19/08, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    12. Choe Chongwoo & Park In-Uck, 2011. "Information, Authority, and Corporate Hierarchies," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-39, February.
    13. Fahad Khalil & Doyoung Kim & Jacques Lawarrée, 2013. "Contracts offered by bureaucrats," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 44(4), pages 686-711, December.
    14. Kuhn, Michael & Yan, Qianhui, 2006. "Quality monitoring, collusion and sub-contracting," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 70, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    15. Bilgehan Karabay, 2017. "Optimal Regulation of Multinationals under Collusion," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1687-1706, August.
    16. Lucia Quesada, 2003. "Modeling collusion as an informed principal problem," Game Theory and Information 0304002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Meng, Dawen & Tian, Guoqiang, 2008. "Nonlinear Pricing with Arbitrage: On the Role of Correlation," MPRA Paper 41207, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Dongsoo Shin & Roland Strausz, 2024. "Insourcing Vs Outsourcing in Vertical Structure," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 495, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    19. Jansen, Jos & Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2008. "The organization of regulated production: Complementarities, correlation and collusion," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 327-353, January.
    20. Kim, Doyoung & Lawarree, Jacques & Shin, Dongsoo, 2004. "Exit option in hierarchical agency," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1265-1287, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    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:oup:oxecpp:v:63:y:2011:i:3:p:523-548. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oep .

    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.