IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/usi/wpaper/636.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Hold-up Problem Under Common Agency

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Nicita
  • Simone Sepe

Abstract

Many real world transactions occur in a common agency environment in which an agent interacts with several principals having competing interests. The hold-up literature, however, has so far neglected to investigate common agency transactions. In this paper, we consider the hold-up problem that arises in a context where there are a monopolistic seller and multiple buyers on the one side and all the parties on the other are required to make specific self-investments. Our contribution is twofold. First, we show that absent initial contracts (i.e., preliminary agreements) between the parties, total efficiency increases when the buyers act competitively using implicit contractual coordination, i.e., contractual menus. Second, we show that introducing initial simple contracts allows parties to reach the first best only under cooperative common agency. Absent this machinery, competition among the principals emerges as a more efficient governance structure for common agency in incomplete transactions.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Nicita & Simone Sepe, 2012. "The Hold-up Problem Under Common Agency," Department of Economics University of Siena 636, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
  • Handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.deps.unisi.it/quaderni/636.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George Hendrikse & Mika Tuunanen & Josef Windsperger & Gérard Cliquet, 2008. "Strategy and Governance of Networks," Post-Print halshs-00480202, HAL.
    2. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret E. Slade, 1997. "Retail Contracting: Theory and Practice," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Nöldeke, Georg & Schmidt, Klaus M., 1995. "Option contracts and renegotiation," Munich Reprints in Economics 19329, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    4. Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2005. "Targeting Managerial Control: Evidence from Franchising," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 131-150, Spring.
    5. Francine Lafontaine, 1992. "Agency Theory and Franchising: Some Empirical Results," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 23(2), pages 263-283, Summer.
    6. Claude Ménard, 2004. "The Economics of Hybrid Organizations," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(3), pages 345-376, September.
    7. Chiesa, Gabriella & Denicolò, Vincenzo, 2009. "Trading with a common agent under complete information: A characterization of Nash equilibria," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 296-311, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Francine Lafontaine & Joanne E. Oxley, 2004. "International Franchising Practices in Mexico: Do Franchisors Customize Their Contracts?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 95-123, March.
    2. James G. Combs & David J. Ketchen Jr & Jeremy C. Short, 2011. "Franchising Research: Major Milestones, New Directions, and its Future within Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(3), pages 413-425, May.
    3. Cintya Lanchimba & Josef Windsperger & Muriel Fadairo, 2018. "Entrepreneurial orientation, risk and incentives: the case of franchising," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 163-180, January.
    4. Vázquez-Suárez, Luis & Mejía-Vásquez, Pericles Ramón & Serafim da Silva, Sheila & Sánchez-Gómez, Roberto, 2022. "Gender’s moderating role in the relationship between organisational form and performance in the Spanish supermarket industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. William E. Gillis & James G. Combs & David J. Ketchen Jr., 2014. "Using Resource–Based Theory to Help Explain Plural Form Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(3), pages 449-472, May.
    6. Benito Arruñada & Luis Vázquez & Giorgio Zanarone, 2009. "Institutional constraints on organizations: the case of Spanish car dealerships," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 15-26.
    7. Itai Ater & Oren Rigbi, 2007. "Price Control In Franchised Chains: The Case Of McDonald's Dollar Menu," Discussion Papers 06-022, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    8. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret Slade, 2007. "Vertical Integration and Firm Boundaries: The Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 629-685, September.
    9. Ackermann, Jeff, 2024. "The effects of franchising on stores, competitors, and consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. Josef Windsperger, 2013. "The governance of franchising networks," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Giorgio Zanarone, 2012. "Coase (1937) revisited: Endogenous fiat in firms and markets," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 59(2), pages 201-221, July.
    12. Meiseberg, Brinja & Perrigot, Rozenn, 2020. "Pricing-based practices, conflicts and performance in franchising," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 939-955.
    13. Nicholas Argyres & Janet Bercovitz, 2015. "Franchisee Associations as Sources of Bargaining Power? Some Evidence," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 811-832, October.
    14. Itai Ater & Oren Rigbi, 2015. "Price control and advertising in franchising chains," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 148-158, January.
    15. Robert Roßner & Dimitrios Zikos, 2018. "The Role of Homogeneity and Heterogeneity Among Resource Users on Water Governance: Lessons Learnt from an Economic Field Experiment on Irrigation in Uzbekistan," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(03), pages 1-30, July.
    16. Ying Fan & Kai-Uwe Kühn & Francine Lafontaine, 2017. "Financial Constraints and Moral Hazard: The Case of Franchising," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(6), pages 2082-2125.
    17. Dhruv Grewal & Gopalkrishnan R. Iyer & Rajshekhar (Raj) G. Javalgi & Lori Radulovich, 2011. "Franchise Partnership and International Expansion: A Conceptual Framework and Research Propositions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(3), pages 533-557, May.
    18. Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2005. "Targeting Managerial Control: Evidence from Franchising," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 131-150, Spring.
    19. Maruyama, Masayoshi & Yamashita, Yu, 2010. "The logic of franchise contracts: Empirical results of Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 183-192, August.
    20. Muriel Fadairo & Cyntia Lanchimba & Miguel Yangari, 2016. "Optimal Monetary Provisions and Risk Aversion in Plural Form Franchise Network. A Model of Incentives with Heterogeneous Agents," Working Papers 1602, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    incomplete contracts; common agency; mechanism design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K12 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Contract Law
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General

    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:usi:wpaper:636. 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: Fabrizio Becatti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desieit.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.