IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ctl/louvre/2002027.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Agency and the Pace of Adoption of New Techniques

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald W. ANDERSON

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES))

  • Kjell G. NYBORG

    (London Business School and CEPR)

Abstract

We study the relation of financial contracting and the pace of technological advance in a dynamic agency theoretic model. A firm which is financed by outside shareholders but run by managers has the prospect of a process innovation which arrives stochastically. Adopting the innovation requires firing old management and hiring new with skills appropriate for the new technique. We show that subgame perfect equilibria in this game can be of two types. In "entrenchment" equilibrium once the new technique has been announced old style management raises their dividend payout sufficiently to preempt the innovation. In "maximum rent extraction" equilibrium' managers are unable or unwilling to match the impending productivity improvement and instead respond by increasing their perquisites for the remaining time of their tenure. We show that both equilibria involve several types of inefficiencies and can resuit in underinvestment in positive NPV projects. We discuss the role of financial innovation in reducing the inefficiencies identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald W. ANDERSON & Kjell G. NYBORG, 2002. "Agency and the Pace of Adoption of New Techniques," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 2002027, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvre:2002027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/REL/2002027.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Andrew F. Newman, 1991. "Risk-Bearing and the Theory of Income Distribution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 211-235.
    2. Greenwood, Jeremy & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1990. "Financial Development, Growth, and the Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 1076-1107, October.
    3. Boyan Jovanovic & Jeremy Greenwood, 1999. "The Information-Technology Revolution and the Stock Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 116-122, May.
    4. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    5. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    7. Anderson, Ronald W. & Nyborg, Kjell G., 2011. "Financing and corporate growth under repeated moral hazard," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    8. Aghion, Philippe & Bolton, Patrick, 1992. "Distribution and growth in models of imperfect capital markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2-3), pages 603-611, April.
    9. Anderson, Ronald W. & Nyborg, Kjell G., 2001. "Financial development, agency and the pace of adoption of new techniques," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 25065, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Bart Hobijn & Boyan Jovanovic, 2001. "The Information-Technology Revolution and the Stock Market: Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1203-1220, December.
    11. Mayer,Colin & Vives,Xavier (ed.), 1993. "Capital Markets and Financial Intermediation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521443975, October.
    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. Ronald W. Anderson, 2002. "Capital structure, firm liquidity and growth," Working Paper Research 27, National Bank of Belgium.

    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. Anderson, Ronald W. & Nyborg, Kjell G., 2001. "Financial development, agency and the pace of adoption of new techniques," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 25065, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Anderson, Ronald W. & Nyborg, Kjell G., 2011. "Financing and corporate growth under repeated moral hazard," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    3. James B. Ang & Jakob B. Madsen, 2012. "Risk capital, private credit, and innovative production," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(4), pages 1608-1639, November.
    4. Luigi Zingales & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2003. "Banks and Markets: The Changing Character of European Finance," NBER Working Papers 9595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Morck, Randall & Deniz Yavuz, M. & Yeung, Bernard, 2011. "Banking system control, capital allocation, and economy performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 264-283, May.
    6. Riccardo Lucchetti & Luca Papi & Alberto Zazzaro, 2001. "Banks’ Inefficiency and Economic Growth: A Micro‐Macro Approach," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 48(4), pages 400-424, September.
    7. Fernández, Ana I. & González, Francisco & Suárez, Nuria, 2013. "The real effect of banking crises: Finance or asset allocation effects? Some international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2419-2433.
    8. Ronald W. Anderson, 2002. "Capital structure, firm liquidity and growth," Working Paper Research 27, National Bank of Belgium.
    9. Riccardo LUCCHETTI & Luca PAPI & Alberto ZAZZARO, 1999. "Efficienza del sistema bancario e crescita economica nelle regioni italiane," Working Papers 121, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    10. Naeem, Kashif & Li, Matthew C., 2019. "Corporate investment efficiency: The role of financial development in firms with financing constraints and agency issues in OECD non-financial firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 53-68.
    11. Mitchener, Kris James & Wheelock, David C., 2013. "Does the structure of banking markets affect economic growth? Evidence from U.S. state banking markets," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 161-178.
    12. Wang, Wei & Yang, Haoxi & Wang, Xi, 2023. "Financial development and wage income: Evidence from the global football market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    13. Raddatz, Claudio, 2006. "Liquidity needs and vulnerability to financial underdevelopment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 677-722, June.
    14. Alam, Ashraful & Uddin, Moshfique & Yazdifar, Hassan & Shafique, Sujana & Lartey, Theophilus, 2020. "R&D investment, firm performance and moderating role of system and safeguard: Evidence from emerging markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 94-105.
    15. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo & Weisbach, Michael S., 2011. "Corporate financial and investment policies when future financing is not frictionless," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 675-693, June.
    16. Irena Grosfeld & Iraj Hashi, 2004. "The emergence of large shareholders in mass privatized firms: Evidence from Poland and the Czech Republic," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2004-718, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    17. Neimke, Markus, 2003. "Financial development and economic growth in transition countries," IEE Working Papers 173, Ruhr University Bochum, Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE).
    18. Randall Morck, 2011. "Finance and Governance in Developing Economies," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 375-406, December.
    19. Dudley, Evan & Zhang, Ning, 2016. "Trust and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 363-387.
    20. Alessandra Bonfiglioli, 2004. "Equities and Inequality," 2004 Meeting Papers 256, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contract; Corporate finance; Innovation; Governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:ctl:louvre:2002027. 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: Sebastien SCHILLINGS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruclbe.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.