Sequential contracting with multiple principals

Work incentives and household insurance: Sequential contracting with altruistic individuals and moral hazard∗

Two agents sequentially contracts with different principals under moral hazard. If agents care for one another, the second principal gains by insuring them over first wages. Even with independent tasks, the first principal must offer riskier payments to induce effort. JEL Codes: D10, D64, D82.

Monitoring a common agent: Implications for financial contracting

Multiple principals want to obtain income from a privately informed agent and design their contracts non-cooperatively. The degree of coordination between principals shapes the contracts and affects the amount of monitoring. Equity-like contracts and excessive monitoring emerge when principals coordinate or verify each others’ monitoring efforts. When this is not possible, free riding weakens m...

Competing for Loyalty: the Dynamics of Rallying Support Matias Iaryczower and Santiago Oliveros

We consider a class of dynamic collective action problems in which either a single principal or two competing principals vie for the support of members of a group. We focus on the dynamic problem that emerges when agents negotiate and commit their support to principals sequentially. A danger for the agents in this context is that a principal may be able to succeed by exploiting competition amon...

On the use of menus in sequential common agency

We illustrate, by means of two examples, why assuming the principals offer simple menus (i.e. collections of payoff-relevant alternatives) as opposed to more general mechanisms may preclude a complete characterization of the set of equilibrium outcomes in certain sequential contracting environments. We then discuss how refinements of the solution concept, or enrichments of the menus that allow ...

Venture Capitalists As Principals: Contracting, Screening, and Monitoring