This paper develops and experimentally implements a simple multi-negotiation bargaining game, in which one agent, called the “developer,” must reach agreements with a series of other agents, called “landowners,” in order to implement a valueincreasing project. The game has a unique subgame perfect Nash equilibrium under which the surplus from the project is split between the landowner and devel...

This paper explores how the opportunity to recontract affects investment and trade in contractual relationships when it is assumed that renegotiation is costly. In this world, recontracting retains much of the benefit that has been ascribed to it, including the realization of any surplus that is available ex post. Costly recontracting also mitigates the well-known drawback, that parties who exp...

This paper investigates how contract structure influences interfirm dispute resolution processes and outcomes by examining a unique dataset consisting of over 150,000 pages of documents relating to 102 business disputes. We find that the level of contract detail affects the type of dispute resolution approach that is adopted when conflict arises, and that different approaches are associated wit...

This paper briefly introduces a recent history of the development of the Chinese contract law. It then analyses various specific contract law issues including formation of the contract, liability for breach of contract and the notion of subrogation. This paper finds that PRC’s contract law presents a hybrid version with key concepts from both Common law tradition and the Civil law tradition. Th...

We examine the stock market reaction to 1227 inter-corporate ordinary business contract announcements reported by Dow Jones between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 2001. Around contract announcement dates, we find statistically significant positive average abnormal returns and abnormal trading volume for contractors, but insignificant positive abnormal returns and negative abnormal volume for ...

This paper provides large-sample evidence pertaining to the use of and wealth effects associated with provisions for termination fees in merger agreements between 1989 and 1998. The evidence suggests that target termination fee clauses are an efficient contracting device through which target managers compensate bidders for the costs associated with bid negotiation and the potential for informat...

This question received a powerful impetus with the publication of Stewart Macaulay’s pioneering study in 1963 into the use of contract law in the market place. Macaulay looked at the contracting practices of businesses in Wisconsin and found that many entered into agreements that didn’t satisfy the requirements of contract law and would not, therefore, be enforceable in the courts – and that th...

Because of the lack of competition regulation, certain contract provisions attempt to substitute for such vacuum. In an era when private ownership of infrastructure projects is gaining grounds, the need for elaborated competition regulation is more pressing than ever. Private ownership does not necessarily mean personal funding. The more common mode of funding involves a syndicate of banks, whi...

This paper analyzes bilateral contracting in an environment with contractual incompleteness and asymmetric information. One party (the seller) makes an unverifiable quality choice and the other party (the buyer) has private information about its valuation. A simple exit option contract, which allows the buyer to refuse trade, achieves the first–best in the benchmark cases where either quality i...

Project alliances have become an attractive option for delivering large, complex infrastructure construction projects in Australia. The development of relationships in cost competitive project alliances is central to performance and achievement of project objectives. Critical success factors in relationship development of alliance projects that improve performance were investigated. Conclusions...