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Contracts and Inequity Aversion

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  • Englmaier, Florian

    (University College London)

  • Achim Wambach

Abstract

Inequity aversion is a special form of other regarding preferences and captures many features of reciprocal behavior, an apparently robust pattern in human nature. Using this concept we analyze the Moral Hazard problem and derive several results which differ from conventional contract theory. Our three key insights are: First, inequity aversion plays a crucial role in the design of optimal contracts. Second, there is a strong tendency towards linear sharing rules, giving a simple and plausible rationale for the prevalence of these schemes in the real world. Third, the Sufficient Statistics result no longer holds as optimal contracts may be ''too'' complete. Along with these key insights we derive a couple of further results.

Suggested Citation

  • Englmaier, Florian & Achim Wambach, 2003. "Contracts and Inequity Aversion," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 74, Royal Economic Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecj:ac2003:74
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    Cited by:

    1. Romuald Elie & Dylan Possamai, 2016. "Contracting theory with competitive interacting agents," Papers 1605.08099, arXiv.org.
    2. Pradeep Dubey & John Geanakoplos & Ori Haimanko, 2013. "Prizes Versus Wages With Envy And Pride," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 64(1), pages 98-121, March.
    3. Brice Corgnet, 2010. "Team Formation and Self‐serving Biases," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 117-135, March.
    4. Christian Grund & Dirk Sliwka, 2005. "Envy and Compassion in Tournaments," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 187-207, March.
    5. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán-González & Stephen Rassenti, 2011. "Real Effort, Real Leisure and Real-time Supervision: Incentives and Peer Pressure in Virtual Organizations," Working Papers 11-05, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    6. Alwine Mohnen & Kathrin Pokorny & Dirk Sliwka, 2008. "Transparency, Inequity Aversion, and the Dynamics of Peer Pressure in Teams: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 693-720, October.
    7. Dominique Demougin & Claude Fluet & Carsten Helm, 2006. "Output and wages with inequality averse agents," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(2), pages 399-413, May.
    8. Pedro Rey Biel, 2005. "Equilibrium Play and Best Response in Sequential Constant Sum Games," Experimental 0506004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kirill Chernomaz, 2012. "Inequity aversion in a model with moral hazard," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(3), pages 2500-2510.
    10. Dominique Demougin & Claude Denys Fluet, 2003. "Inequity Aversion in Tournament," CIRANO Working Papers 2003s-18, CIRANO.
    11. Gürtler, Marc & Gürtler, Oliver, 2014. "The interaction of explicit and implicit contracts: A signaling approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 135-146.
    12. Pedro Rey‐Biel, 2008. "Inequity Aversion and Team Incentives," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 297-320, June.
    13. Shingo Ishiguro, 2011. "Fair Contracts," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 11-30, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    14. Björn Bartling & Ferdinand A. von Siemens, 2010. "Equal Sharing Rules in Partnerships," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 166(2), pages 299-320, June.
    15. Corgnet, Brice, 2005. "Team formation and biased self-attribution," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb055214, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    16. Hideshi Itoh, 2004. "Moral Hazard and Other‐Regarding Preferences," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 55(1), pages 18-45, March.
    17. Kangsik Choi, 2007. "Ex ante contracting with inequity aversion," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(9), pages 1139-1145.
    18. Robert Dur & Amihai Glazer, 2004. "Optimal Incentive Contracts For a Worker Who Envies His Boss," CESifo Working Paper Series 1282, CESifo.
    19. Jörg Budde & Matthias Kräkel, 2011. "Limited liability and the risk–incentive relationship," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 97-110, March.
    20. Santos-Pinto, Luís, 2006. "Reciprocity, inequity-aversion, and oligopolistic competition," MPRA Paper 3143, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Apr 2007.
    21. Siemens, Ferdinand von, 2005. "Fairness, Adverse Selection, and Employment Contracts," Discussion Papers in Economics 669, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    22. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher & Elena Tougareva, "undated". "Do High Stakes and Competition Undermine Fairness? Evidence from Russia," IEW - Working Papers 120, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    23. Siemens, Ferdinand von, 2005. "Fairness, Adverse Selection, and Employment Contracts," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 58, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    24. Dandan Li & Ofir Turel & Shuyue Zhang & Qinghua He, 2022. "Self-Serving Dishonesty Partially Substitutes Fairness in Motivating Cooperation When People Are Treated Fairly," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-14, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    contract theory; linear contracts; incentives; sufficient statistics result; inequity aversion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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