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Ex-post moral hazard and manipulation-proof contracts

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  • Jean-Gabriel Lauzier

Abstract

We examine the trade-off between the provision of incentives to exert costly effort (ex-ante moral hazard) and the incentives needed to prevent the agent from manipulating the profit observed by the principal (ex-post moral hazard). Formally, we build a model of two-stage hidden actions where the agent can both influence the expected revenue of a business and manipulate its observed profit. We show that manipulation-proofness is sensitive to the interaction between the manipulation technology and the probability distribution of the stochastic output. The optimal contract is manipulation-proof whenever the manipulation technology is linear. However, a convex manipulation technology sometimes leads to contracts with manipulations in equilibrium. Whenever the distribution satisfies the monotone likelihood ratio property, we can always find a manipulation technology for which the optimal contract is not manipulation-proof.

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  • Jean-Gabriel Lauzier, 2021. "Ex-post moral hazard and manipulation-proof contracts," Papers 2112.06811, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2112.06811
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bernanke, Ben S. & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1999. "The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1341-1393, Elsevier.
    2. Jean-Gabriel Lauzier, 2021. "Envelope theorem and discontinuous optimisation: the case of positioning choice problems," Papers 2112.06815, arXiv.org.
    3. Jeffrey Lacker, 2001. "Collateralized Debt as the Optimal Contract," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(4), pages 842-859, October.
    4. Keith J. Crocker & Joel Slemrod, 2007. "The economics of earnings manipulation and managerial compensation," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(3), pages 698-713, September.
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    6. Innes, Robert D., 1990. "Limited liability and incentive contracting with ex-ante action choices," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 45-67, October.
    7. Ke, Rongzhu & Ryan, Christopher Thomas, 2018. "A general solution method for moral hazard problems," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), September.
    8. Sun, Bo, 2014. "Executive compensation and earnings management under moral hazard," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 276-290.
    9. Anne Beyer & Ilan Guttman & Iván Marinovic, 2014. "Optimal Contracts with Performance Manipulation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 817-847, September.
    10. Attar, Andrea & Campioni, Eloisa, 2003. "Costly state verification and debt contracts: a critical resume," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 315-343, December.
    11. Townsend, Robert M., 1979. "Optimal contracts and competitive markets with costly state verification," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 265-293, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jean-Gabriel Lauzier, 2021. "Envelope theorem and discontinuous optimisation: the case of positioning choice problems," Papers 2112.06815, arXiv.org.

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