IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/coacre/v5y1988i1p96-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unobservable outcomes and multiattribute preferences in the evaluation of managerial performance

Author

Listed:
  • RAJIV D. BANKER
  • SRIKANT M. DATAR
  • AJAY MAINDIRATTA

Abstract

. This paper employs a generalized principal†agent model to analyze accounting situations in which the outcome is not jointly observable and the principal's and agent's preferences are multiattribute in nature. This requires the consideration of accounting signals for risk†sharing (or insurance) information in addition to performance evaluation (or incentive) information. It is shown that precisely two factors determine whether a signal will be valuable in the agency relationship: Observability of the agent's effort and the principal's multivariate risk neutrality. Sufficient conditions for various accounting signals to have value are also developed. Furthermore, when multiple accounting signals are available, it is shown that under certain conditions, the insurance components of the multiple signals can be aggregated into a single aggregate insurance measure and the incentive components of the signals can be aggregated (via a different aggregation procedure) into another aggregate incentive measure. Résumé. Les auteurs utilisent un modèle généralisé mandant†mandataire pour analyser les situations comptables dans lesquelles le résultat n'est pas observable conjointement et les préférences du mandant et du mandataire comportent, par nature, de multiples attributs. Cela exige la prise en considération d'indicateurs comptables relatifs à l'information sur le partage des risques (ou de l'assurance) en plus de l'information relative à l'évaluation du rendement (ou aux stimulants). Les auteurs démontrent que deux facteurs permettent de déterminer avec précision si un indicateur sera valable dans la relation de mandataire: le caractère observable de l'effort du mandataire et la neutralité multivariée du mandant à l'égard du risque. Des conditions suffisantes pour que les divers indicateurs comptables soient valables sont également établies. En outre, lorsque des indicateurs comptables multiples sont disponibles, les auteurs démontrent que dans certaines conditions, les éléments des indicateurs multiples liés à l'assurance peuvent faire l'objet d'une regroupement en une seule mesure globale d'assurance, et que les éléments des indicateurs liés aux stimulants peuvent faire l'objet d'une regroupement (au moyen d'une méthode différente) en une autre mesure globale des stimulants.

Suggested Citation

  • Rajiv D. Banker & Srikant M. Datar & Ajay Maindiratta, 1988. "Unobservable outcomes and multiattribute preferences in the evaluation of managerial performance," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(1), pages 96-124, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:5:y:1988:i:1:p:96-124
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1911-3846.1988.tb00697.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1911-3846.1988.tb00697.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1911-3846.1988.tb00697.x?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. Rogerson, William P, 1985. "The First-Order Approach to Principal-Agent Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1357-1367, November.
    2. Frøystein Gjesdal, 1982. "Information and Incentives: The Agency Information Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(3), pages 373-390.
    3. Banker, Rd & Datar, Sm, 1989. "Sensitivity, Precision, And Linear Aggregation Of Signals For Performance Evaluation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 21-39.
    4. James A. Mirrlees, 1976. "The Optimal Structure of Incentives and Authority Within an Organization," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 105-131, Spring.
    5. Antle, R, 1982. "The Auditor As An Economic Agent," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 503-527.
    6. John C. Harsanyi, 1955. "Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(4), pages 309-309.
    7. Scott F. Richard, 1975. "Multivariate Risk Aversion, Utility Independence and Separable Utility Functions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 12-21, September.
    8. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn.
    9. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1979. "Optimal incentive contracts with imperfect information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 231-259, April.
    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. Rajiv D. Banker & Srikant M. Datar, 1992. "Optimal transfer pricing under postcontract information," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), pages 329-352, March.

    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. Inés Macho-Stadler & David Pérez-Castrillo, 2018. "Moral hazard: Base models and two extensions," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume I, chapter 16, pages 453-485, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Rajiv D. Banker & Srikant M. Datar & Mark J. Mazur, 1990. "Testing the optimality of a performance evaluation measure for a gainsharing contract," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(2), pages 809-824, March.
    3. Lilia Filipova, 2007. "Monitoring and Privacy in Automobile Insurance Markets with Moral Hazard," Working Papers 026, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    4. Ohad Kadan & Philip J. Reny & Jeroen M. Swinkels, 2017. "Existence of Optimal Mechanisms in Principal‐Agent Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 769-823, May.
    5. Martin Byford, 2003. "Moral Hazard From Costless Hidden Actions," Working Papers 2003.03, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    6. Bushman, Robert M. & Smith, Abbie J., 2001. "Financial accounting information and corporate governance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 237-333, December.
    7. Bracha Meth, 1996. "Reduction of Outcome Variance: Optimality and Incentives," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 309-328, March.
    8. Florian Hoffmann & Roman Inderst & Marcus Opp, 2021. "Only Time Will Tell: A Theory of Deferred Compensation [Motivating Innovation in Newly Public Firms]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(3), pages 1253-1278.
    9. Byford, Martin C., 2017. "Moral hazard in strategic decision making," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 114-136.
    10. Jia Xie, 2015. "Information, Risk Sharing and Incentives in Agency Problems," Staff Working Papers 15-7, Bank of Canada.
    11. Mensch, Jeffrey, 2021. "Rational inattention and the monotone likelihood ratio property," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    12. Holmstrom, Bengt R. & Tirole, Jean, 1989. "The theory of the firm," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 61-133, Elsevier.
    13. Niousha Shahidi, 2014. "Moral hazard and optimal insurance contract with a continuum effort," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(3), pages 1350-1360.
    14. Bengt Holmström, 2017. "Pay for Performance and Beyond," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(7), pages 1753-1777, July.
    15. Lambert, Richard A., 2001. "Contracting theory and accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 3-87, December.
    16. Peter D. Woodlock & Richard A. Young, 2001. "The trade-off of reliability for relevance within a stewardship setting," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(6), pages 315-326.
    17. Alex Edmans & Xavier Gabaix, 2016. "Executive Compensation: A Modern Primer," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1232-1287, December.
    18. Mario Tirelli, 2021. "On the optimal investment finance of small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1639-1665, April.
    19. Bartsch, Elga, 1996. "Enforcement of environmental liability in the case of uncertain causality and asymmetric information," Kiel Working Papers 755, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Zhen Wang & Tomislav Vukina, 2017. "Welfare effects of payment truncation in piece rate tournaments," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 219-249, April.

    More about this item

    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:wly:coacre:v:5:y:1988:i:1:p:96-124. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3846 .

    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.