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Mediators and Mechanism Design: Why Firms Hire Consultants

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  • Kay Mitusch
  • Roland Strausz

Abstract

This paper offers a new type of explanation for economic institutions as playing the role of mediators in the sense of Myerson (1985) to facilitate communication in contracting settings with ex ante asymmetric information and limited commitment. It derives necessary and sufficient conditions under which mediation is strictly helpful and provides a straightforward, yet general intuition for this result. As an application of our idea we explain the widely observed use of consultants during the restructure of firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Kay Mitusch & Roland Strausz, "undated". "Mediators and Mechanism Design: Why Firms Hire Consultants," Papers 005, Departmental Working Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:bef:lsbest:005
    as

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    File URL: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/%7Elsbester/papers/consult.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Forges, Francoise, 1988. "Can sunspots replace a mediator?," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 347-368, September.
    2. Forges, Francoise M, 1986. "An Approach to Communication Equilibria," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(6), pages 1375-1385, November.
    3. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1988. "The Dynamics of Incentive Contracts," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(5), pages 1153-1175, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Kay Mitusch & Roland Strausz, 2005. "Mediation in Situations of Conflict and Limited Commitment," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 467-500, October.
    2. Krähmer, Daniel, 2002. "Delegation versus authority [Delegation versus Autorität]," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Processes and Governance FS IV 02-26, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. A. Fedele & A. Mantovani & F. Liucci, 2010. "Credit availability in the crisis: which role for the European Investment Bank Group?," Working Papers 699, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    4. Alessandro Fedele & Andrea Mantovani, 2010. "The Importance of Being Consulted," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 11(2), pages 231-245, November.
    5. Alessandro Fedele & Francesco Liucci & Andrea Mantovani, 2009. "Credit availability in the crisis: the European investment bank group," Working Papers 0913, University of Brescia, Department of Economics.
    6. Kay Mitusch & Roland Strausz, 2000. "Mediation in Situations of Conflict," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0361, Econometric Society.
    7. Peter Vida, 2005. "A Detail-free Mediator and the 3 Player Case," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 0511, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    mechanism design; communication equilibrium; limited commitment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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