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Too big to cheat: Efficiency and Investment in Partnerships

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  • Emilio Espino
  • Julian Kozlowski
  • Juan M. Sanchez

Abstract

Private information may limit insurance possibilities when a few agents form a partnership to pool idiosyncratic risk. We show that these insurance possibilities can improve if the partnership's income depends on capital accumulation and production, because cheating distorts investment. As agents' weights in the partnership increase, they are more affected by the investment distortion, and their incentives to misreport under the full information allocation are reduced. In the long run, either one of the partners is driven to immiseration, or both partners' lifetime utilities are approximately equal. The second case is only possible with capital accumulation. The theory's testable implications are in line with empirical evidence on the organization of small-business partnerships.

Suggested Citation

  • Emilio Espino & Julian Kozlowski & Juan M. Sanchez, 2013. "Too big to cheat: Efficiency and Investment in Partnerships," Working Papers 2013-001, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2013-001
    DOI: 10.20955/wp.2013.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicholas Economides, 2014. "Bundling and Tying," Working Papers 14-22, NET Institute.
    2. Golosov, M. & Tsyvinski, A. & Werquin, N., 2016. "Recursive Contracts and Endogenously Incomplete Markets," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 725-841, Elsevier.
    3. Yunmin Chen & YiLi Chien & Michael T. Owyang, 2015. "Individual and Aggregate Constrained Efficient Intertemporal Wedges in Dynamic Mirrleesian Economies," Working Papers 2015-43, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    4. Emilio Espino & Julian Kozlowski & Juan M. Sanchez, 2016. "Stylized Facts on the Organization of Small Business Partnerships," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 98(4), pages 297-310.

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    Keywords

    Disclosure of information; Risk; Capital;
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