IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/shr/wpaper/08-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Dynamic Regulation of Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Stéphane Auray

    (Université Lille 3 (GREMARS), Université de Sherbrooke (GREDI) and CIRPÉE)

  • Thomas Mariotti

    (Toulouse School of Economics (GREMAQ/CNRS and IDEI))

  • Fabien Moizeau

    (Toulouse School of Economics (GREMAQ))

Abstract

We investigate the design of incentives for quality provision in a dynamic regulation setting in which maintenance efforts and quality shocks have durable effects. When the regulator contracts with a sequence of agents, asymmetries of information can lead to overprovision of quality, reflecting a dynamic rent extraction motive. When the regulator hires a single agent to manage quality, over-provision of quality can also be used by the regulator to strengthen dynamic incentives. We further show that for small levels of asymmetric information, the regulator may prefer contracting with a sequence of agents rather than hiring a single agent if high quality shocks are relatively unfrequent, provided all parties can commit to a long-term contract. When no such commitment is feasible, the fact that quality physically links periods together leads to a ratchet effect even under recurring private information, and shorter franchises are beneficial from a social viewpoint.

Suggested Citation

  • Stéphane Auray & Thomas Mariotti & Fabien Moizeau, 2008. "Dynamic Regulation of Quality," Cahiers de recherche 08-11, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    • Handle: RePEc:shr:wpaper:08-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://gredi.recherche.usherbrooke.ca/wpapers/GREDI-0811.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alessandro Pavan & Ilya Segal & Juuso Toikka, 2008. "Dynamic Mechanism Design: Incentive Compatibility, Profit Maximization and Information Disclosure," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 84, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    2. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1990. "Adverse Selection and Renegotiation in Procurement," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(4), pages 597-625.
    3. Gianni De Fraja & Alberto Iozzi, 2008. "The Quest for Quality: A Quality Adjusted Dynamic Regulatory Mechanism," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(4), pages 1011-1040, December.
    4. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Using Cost Observation to Regulate Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 614-641, June.
    5. Marco Battaglini, 2005. "Long-Term Contracting with Markovian Consumers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 637-658, June.
    6. Xavier Freixas & Roger Guesnerie & Jean Tirole, 1985. "Planning under Incomplete Information and the Ratchet Effect," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(2), pages 173-191.
    7. Tracy R. Lewis & Huseyin Yildirim, 2002. "Learning by Doing and Dynamic Regulation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(1), pages 22-36, Spring.
    8. Tracy Lewis & David E.M. Sappington, 1997. "Penalizing Success in Dynamic Incentive Contracts: No. Good Deed Goes Unpunished?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(2), pages 346-358, Summer.
    9. Lewis, Tracy R & Sappington, David E M, 1992. "Incentives for Conservation and Quality-Improvement by Public Utilities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(5), pages 1321-1340, December.
    10. d'Aspremont, Claude & Gerard-Varet, Louis-Andre, 1979. "Incentives and incomplete information," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 25-45, February.
    11. Mark Armstrong & Simon Cowan & John Vickers, 1994. "Regulatory Reform: Economic Analysis and British Experience," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262510790, April.
    12. Tracy R. Lewis & David E.M. Sappington, 1991. "Incentives for Monitoring Quality," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(3), pages 370-384, Autumn.
    13. Baron, David P. & Besanko, David, 1984. "Regulation and information in a continuing relationship," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 267-302.
    14. David Sappington, 2005. "Regulating Service Quality: A Survey," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 123-154, November.
    15. Dennis Gaertner, 2004. "Endogenizing Private Information: Incentive Contracts under Learning By Doing," SOI - Working Papers 0413, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    16. Susan Athey & Ilya Segal, 2013. "An Efficient Dynamic Mechanism," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(6), pages 2463-2485, November.
    17. GERARD Gaudet & PIERRE Lasserres & NGO VAN Long, 1996. "Dynamic Incentive Contracts With Uncorrelated Private Information And History-Dependent Outcomes," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 321-334, December.
    18. Ingo Vogelsang & Jorg Finsinger, 1979. "A Regulatory Adjustment Process for Optimal Pricing by Multiproduct Monopoly Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 157-171, Spring.
    19. Juuso Toikka & Ilya Segal & Alessandro Pavan, 2008. "Revenue Equivalence, Profit Maximization, and Information Disclosure in Dynamic Mechanisms," 2008 Meeting Papers 564, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Barnett,William A. & Cornet,Bernard & D'Aspremont,Claude & Gabszewicz,Jean & Mas-Colell,Andreu (ed.), 1991. "Equilibrium Theory and Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521392198, October.
    21. Rogerson, William P, 1985. "Repeated Moral Hazard," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(1), pages 69-76, January.
    22. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1988. "The Dynamics of Incentive Contracts," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(5), pages 1153-1175, September.
    23. Gaudet, Gerard & Lassere, Pierre & Long, Ngo Van, 1995. "Optimal Resource Royalties with Unknown and Temporally Independent Extraction Cost Structures," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(3), pages 715-749, August.
    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. Cesi Berardino & Iozzi Alberto & Valentini Edilio, 2012. "Regulating Unverifiable Quality by Fixed-Price Contracts," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-39, September.
    2. Changying Li & Jianhu Zhang, 2013. "Dynamic Games of R&D Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 169(4), pages 660-679, December.
    3. Malin Arve & David Martimort, 2016. "Dynamic Procurement under Uncertainty: Optimal Design and Implications for Incomplete Contracts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3238-3274, November.
    4. Sato, Susumu, 2018. "Monopoly regulation in the presence of consumer demand-reduction," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 61-64.
    5. Saha, Souresh, 2014. "Firm's objective function and product and process R&D," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 484-494.
    6. Weber, Thomas A. & Nguyen, Viet Anh, 2018. "A linear-quadratic Gaussian approach to dynamic information acquisition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(1), pages 260-281.

    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. Stéphane Auray & Thomas Mariotti & Fabien Moizeau, 2006. "Dynamic Regulation of Public Good Quality," Cahiers de recherche 0610, CIRPEE.
    2. Armstrong, Mark & Sappington, David E.M., 2007. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Regulation," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1557-1700, Elsevier.
    3. Daniel Garrett & Alessandro Pavan, 2009. "Dynamic Managerial Compensation: a Mechanism Design Approach," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 127, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    4. Bergemann, Dirk & Pavan, Alessandro, 2015. "Introduction to Symposium on Dynamic Contracts and Mechanism Design," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PB), pages 679-701.
    5. Benford, Frank A., 1998. "On the Dynamics of the Regulation of Pollution: Incentive Compatible Regulation of a Persistent Pollutant," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-25, July.
    6. Drew Fudenberg, 2015. "Tirole's Industrial Regulation and Organization Legacy in Economics," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(3), pages 771-800, July.
    7. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2014. "Market power and regulation (scientific background)," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2014-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    8. Krähmer, Daniel & Strausz, Roland, 2010. "Optimal Procurement Contracts with Pre–Project Planning," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 303, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    9. Dirk Bergemann & Alessandro Pavan, 2015. "Introduction to JET Symposium Issue on "Dynamic Contracts and Mechanism Design"," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2016, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    10. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sönje Kerrin, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 4035, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Battaglini, Marco, 2007. "Optimality and renegotiation in dynamic contracting," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 213-246, August.
    12. B. Caillaud & R. Guesnerie & P. Rey & J. Tirole, 1988. "Government Intervention in Production and Incentives Theory: A Review of Recent Contributions," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(1), pages 1-26, Spring.
    13. Dirk Bergemann & Juuso V‰lim‰ki, 2010. "The Dynamic Pivot Mechanism," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(2), pages 771-789, March.
    14. Paul L. Joskow, 2014. "Incentive Regulation in Theory and Practice: Electricity Distribution and Transmission Networks," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, pages 291-344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sonje, 2003. "Dynamic yardstick regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19319, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Ismail Saglam, 2024. "The Bayesian approach to monopoly regulation after 40 years," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 108-136, June.
    17. Faure-Grimaud, A. & Reiche, S., 2006. "Dynamic yardstick mechanisms," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 316-335, February.
    18. Ingo Vogelsang, 2012. "Incentive Regulation, Investments and Technological Change," Chapters, in: Gerald R. Faulhaber & Gary Madden & Jeffrey Petchey (ed.), Regulation and the Performance of Communication and Information Networks, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Soenje Reiche, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 459, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    20. Sergiu Ungureanu, 2017. "Dynamic contracting under permanent and transitory private information," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 46(3), pages 667-692, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Quality; Regulation; Asymmetric Information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:shr:wpaper:08-11. 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: Jean-François Rouillard (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deushca.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.