专用性人力资本投资与工资合约——引入不对称信息的敲竹杠模型

经典的不完全合约理论认为,当事人的专用性投资会引发敲竹杠行为从而导致专用性投资的无效率。本文通过在经典的敲竹杠模型中引入关于雇员能力的不对称信息,构建一个新的模型来分析企业工资合约的刚性与灵活性,以解决敲竹杠所导致的专用性人力资本投资不足。分析表明:从保护雇佣双方专用性人力资本投资方面看,固定工资合约优于灵活工资合约;且在固定工资合约下,雇员虽然仍可能面临敲竹杠风险,但敲竹杠未必妨碍专用性人力资本投资效率。     

非人力资产所有权与企业的边界——企业理论研究之二

产权理论是第一个关于不完全合约和企业合并的正式模型 ,其核心内涵是在不完全合约和潜伏着“敲竹杠”问题的环境中 ,非人力资产所有权如何影响交易参与人的关系专用性投资。通过考察该理论的基本假设和概念框架发现 ,它不能对企业边界的决定提供恰当的和充分的解释。企业不仅仅是解决“敲竹杠”问题的机制 ,合并也不是解决“敲竹杠”问题的惟一途径。     

合约权利的安排与再安排--基于规范与实证两种视角的分析

不完全合约所产生的剩余控制权和剩余索取权的安排问题应该从签约前和签约后两个方面入手。签约前剩余权利的安排具有规范的性质,它往往会以效率为导向,主要影响因素有当事人的退出成本、个人主观判断、风险偏好以及监督难易程度等;签约之后的履约过程中,剩余权利的再安排更具有实证性质,主要取决于合约当事人的谈判力。     

不完全契约理论:一个综述

标准的契约理论或委托-代理理论假定契约是完全的,然而现实中的契约是不完全的。契约的不完全会导致事前的最优契约失效,当事人在面临被“敲竹杠”的风险时会做出无效率的专用性投资。经济学家们在研究如何最大程度地减少由于契约不完全所导致的效率损失时,发展了一个新兴的不完全契约理论。本文以一个基本模型为基点,围绕专用性投资效率问题,从司法干预、赔偿、治理结构、产权以及履约等多个视角,全面地介绍了不完全契约理论的产生、发展、应用以及面临的挑战和未来的前景。     

雇佣合约、嵌入性过程控制与企业专用性人力资本投资——以GL集团为例

本文通过GL集团的案例,探讨了企业进行专用性入力资本投资的两种可行途径：一是雇佣合约框架内的专用性人力资本投资模式;二是嵌入性过程控制的专用性人力资本投资模式。前者以雇佣合约为前提,主要采用市场通行的“市场招聘＋人才改造”的形式。后者则是以“或有雇佣合约”为基础,其核心是采用某种方式对学校的人力资本生产过程（教育活动）施加某种控制或影响,进而将企业专用性入力资本生产过程嵌入到通用性入力资本的生产过程中。对这两种投资途径的研究．尤其是对后一种投资途径的研究．丰富和深化了对于专用性入力资本投资与企业合约之间逻辑关系的理解。     

契约不完全一定导致投资无效率吗?——一个带有不对称信息的敲竹杠模型

经典的不完全契约理论认为,契约不完全会导致专用性人力资本投资的无效率。但是这难以解释现实中大量存在的雇员进行有效率投资的现象。通过在一个经典的敲竹杠模型中引入重复博弈和关于投资者能力的不对称信息,本文证明:契约不完全一定会导致敲竹杠,但是敲竹杠未必妨碍专用性人力资本投资效率。本文刻画了三类完美贝叶斯均衡(PBE):好的声誉使高能者在第一期做出社会最优的专用性人力资本投资,并且使低能者退出市场;中性的声誉使高能者和低能者都在第一期做出社会最优的专用性人力资本投资;而坏的声誉使高能者和低能者都退出市场。本文还表明,在动态环境下产权仍然是重要的。     

外部选择与关系专用性投资激励——基于GHM模型的研究

现实中的契约总是不完全的,当自然状态被参与人观察到之后,为了保证交易有效率,通常会对事前契约进行再谈判.首先,论文研究了事后再谈判时参与人的外部选择对事后合作租金的分配影响及事前关系专用性投资激励问题;其次,根据外部选择是否具有约束力,将外部选择区分为威胁点和现状点.研究结果显示:当外部选择为现状点时,不完全契约会导致事前关系专用性投资不足;而如果事后外部选择为威胁点时,投资方会作出有效率投资或投资过度     

弱产权与研发人力资本投资激励问题研究

企业研发过程是一个知识创造的过程,研发形成的技术创新成果包括可缔约的显性知识和不可缔约的隐性知识,技术创新成果知识产权的保护存在困难,事前难以基于研发人力资本投资和技术创新知识产权进行缔约,使用完全契约理论研究方法则存在一定的局限性。论文运用不完全契约理论,研究了研发过程中弱知识产权保护下,研究人员的事前研发投资激励问题。研究认为,在不完全契约背景下,研究人员总是存在事前研发投资不足问题。如果存在外部风险投资公司,能够提高研究人员的投资水平;而创新技术知识溢出程度越大,越不利于研发人员作出有效率地投资。创新技术的专用性程度也影响到研发人员的事前研发投入激励,在创新技术为完全专用性技术的情况下,研发人员作出的事前研发投入水平低于在创新技术为通用性技术的情况下的投入水平,但仍能获得部分事后谈判准租。     

研发合作中的产权结构与投资激励

不完全合同背景下,产权分配在参与方的投资决策中至关重要。利用产权理论讨论了研发合作中的序贯投资决策和创新的产权分配问题。研究表明,最优产权结构随着参与方的谈判力变动,谈判力较低的一方单独拥有产权能够平衡其投资积极性;随着投资关系专用性程度的增加,最优产权为联合产权在产品开发者谈判力区间的范围更广。为了提高双方合作效率,可考虑采用由一个产品开发者出价并按照研究单位投资积极性分配初始产权的期权合同。比较分析发现：期权合同能够缓解投资不足问题,并进一步提高双方合作效率。     

农产品质量安全的契约选择:基于关系契约理论的分析框架

已有文献较多地从信息不对称角度入手研究农产品质量安全问题,认为信息不对称下的逆向选择和道德风险是农产品质量安全的主要风险,而对于契约不完全和专用性投资不平衡导致的敲竹杠问题未给予充分的重视。文章结合信息不对称和契约不完全理论,具体区分了农产品质量安全供给中的三种机会主义类型,即逆向选择、道德风险和敲竹杠。从关系契约治理的视角对现行农业契约的主要模式进行了效果评价,提出农业契约模式的选择依据,并为农业合作社的发展提供了理论佐证。     

Sunk capital,unions and the hold-up problem: Theory and evidence from cross-country sectoral data

In this paper we study the hold-up problem by considering the effect of union bargaining power on the level of investment per worker across sectors characterised by different levels of sunk capital investment. We develop a search and matching model with heterogeneous sectors and ex-post collective wage bargaining and test the predictions of the model using a difference-in-difference approach on manufacturing sector data in a set of OECD countries during the period 1980–2000. We find that union power reduces investment per worker particularly in sunk capital intensive industries. We refine our empirical analysis showing that the underlying hold-up problem is exacerbated when strikes are not regulated after a collective contract is signed and there is no arbitration, while the presence of social pacts may sustain cooperative equilibria that alleviate the hold-up problem. Our results are robust to a series of controls and possible endogeneity of union power.     

Bargaining under incomplete information, fairness, and the hold-up problem

In the hold-up problem incomplete contracts cause the proceeds of relationship-specific investments to be allocated by bargaining. This paper investigates the corresponding investment incentives if individuals have heterogeneous fairness preferences. Individual preferences are taken to be private information. Investments can then signal preferences and thereby influence beliefs and bargaining behavior. In consequence, individuals might choose high investments in order not to signal information that is unfavorable in the ensuing bargaining.     

供应链的交易成本分析及供产双方的博弈

本文通过传统供应链中供应商和制造商的讨价还价模型分析,论证了交易双方的交易成本不同,造成供应商和制造商之间的相互依赖关系不同,从而双方的机会主义行为倾向也不同.制造商可以通过与高质量的供应商建立长期的诚信的战略合作伙伴关系,以减少为讨价还价消耗的交易成本,同时也减少了双方机会主义行为所造成的损害.     

外资讨价还价能力与地区引资结构

本文在不完全契约理论基础上构建了一个开放经济垄断竞争模型,考察了外资讨价还价能力的地区差异对引资结构的影响。理论分析表明:外资讨价还价能力的提高,对于外资拥有所有权优势的行业的外资流入具有显著促进作用。在此基础上,我们利用中国2001-2007年30个省市细分行业的数据,采用动态面板方法对该结论进行了实证检验。结果显示,外资讨价还价能力的提高对人力资本、物质资本、管理和研发密集型等外资拥有所有权优势行业的外资流入有显著的促进作用。并且在控制了地理集聚、市场潜力和基础设施水平等因素后,本文的实证结果依然稳健。     

A bargaining theory of the firm

Suppose that a firm has several owners and that the future is uncertain in the sense that one out of many different states of nature will realize tomorrow. An owner’s time preference and risk attitude will determine the importance he places on payoffs in the different states. It is a well-known problem in the literature that under incomplete asset markets, a conflict about the firm’s objective function tends to arise among its owners. In this paper, we take a new approach to this problem, which is based on non-cooperative bargaining. The owners of the firm play a bargaining game in order to choose the firm’s production plan and a scheme of transfers which are payable before the uncertainty about the future state of nature is resolved. We analyze the resulting firm decision in the limit of subgame-perfect equilibria in stationary strategies. Given the distribution of bargaining power, we obtain a unique prediction for a production plan and a transfer scheme. When markets are complete, the production plan chosen corresponds to the profit-maximizing production plan as in the Arrow–Debreu model. Contrary to that model, owners typically do use transfers to redistribute profits. When markets are incomplete, the production plan chosen is almost always different from the one in a transfer-free Drèze (pseudo-)equilibrium and again owners use transfers to redistribute profits. Nevertheless, our results do support the Drèze criterion as the appropriate objective function of the firm.     

WAGE BARGAINING AND MERGER INCENTIVES WITH ASYMMETRIC COSTS

This paper examines how wage bargaining within each firm influences the relationship between an equilibrium ownership structure and the most preferred ownership structure from the viewpoint of social welfare, in a unionized oligopoly of asymmetric firms with respect to productivity of capital. We consider the merger incentive of each firm’s owner when the wage level is determined through bargaining between the firm’s owner and union. We derive a condition for both the degree of cost asymmetry among existing firms and the relative bargaining power of each firm’s owner to her/his union such that each ownership structure can be observed in equilibrium. We also show that although the two types of ownership structures with the merger involving the least efficient firm can be equilibria and socially optimal, these structures are observed only when both the degree of cost asymmetry and the relative bargaining power of each firm’s owner are moderate. Finally, we analyse the relationship among the cooperative game approach employed in this paper and two non‐cooperative merger formation approaches, and examine the robustness of the results obtained in this paper against the change in the assumption regarding each firm’s cost function.     

Buyer power and quality improvements

This paper analyses the sources of buyer power and the effect of buyer power on sellers’ investment in quality improvements. In our model, retailers make take-it-or-leave-it offers to a producer and each of them in equilibrium obtains its marginal contribution to total profits (gross of sunk costs). In turn, the individual marginal contribution depends on the rivalry between retailers in the bargaining process. Rivalry increases when retailers are less differentiated and when decreasing returns to scale in production are larger. The allocation of total surplus affects the incentives of the producer to invest in product quality, an instance of the hold-up problem. An increase in buyer power not only makes the supplier and consumers worse off, but it may even harm retailers that obtain a larger share of a smaller surplus.     

Growth,selection and appropriate contracts

We study a dynamic model where growth requires both long-term investment and the selection of talented managers. When ability is not ex-ante observable and contracts are incomplete, managerial selection imposes a cost, as managers facing the risk of being replaced choose a sub-optimally low level of long-term investment. This generates a trade-off between selection and investment that has implications for the choice of contractual relationships and institutions. Our analysis shows that rigid long-term contracts sacrificing managerial selection may prevail at early stages of economic development and when heterogeneity in ability is low. As the economy grows, however, knowledge accumulation increases the return to talent and makes it optimal to adopt flexible contractual relationships, where managerial selection is implemented even at the cost of lower investment. Measures of investor protection aimed at limiting the bargaining power of managers improve selection under short-term contracts. Given that knowledge accumulation raises the value of selection, the optimal level of investor protection increases with development.