Optimal delegation with multi-dimensional decisions

This paper investigates optimal mechanisms in a principal–agent framework with a two-dimensional decision space, quadratic payoffs and no monetary transfers. If the conflicts of interest between the principal and the agent are different on each dimension, then delegation is always strictly valuable. The principal can better extract information from the agent by using the spread between the two decisions as a costly screening device. Delegation sets no longer trade off pooling intervals and intervals of full discretion but instead take more complex shapes. We use advanced results from the calculus of variations to ensure existence of a solution and derive sufficient and necessary conditions for optimality. The optimal mechanism is continuous and deterministic. The agent?s informational rent, the average decision and its spread are strictly monotonic in the agent?s type. The comparison of the optimal mechanism with standard one-dimensional mechanisms shows how cooperation between different principals controlling various dimensions of the agent?s activities facilitates information revelation.     

Accounting,risk, and revolution

In response to the position of Steve Toms, this article argues that risk must be understood not as it has been posited by capital but rather as it might be taken up by labour. It uses Marx's socialization thesis to maintain that risk is a symptom of possibility for labour. Drawing on the work of Randy Martin the argument culminates in a consideration of the interanimation of capital in labour occasioned by the second helping of risk produced by its commoditisation. It concludes that far from being just what Michel Aglietta calls a social evaluation of private economic activity, risk offers the opportunity to develop an accounting not just to provoke capital's contradictions with its own tools but to develop an immanent accounting of socialized labour in revolution, an accounting to come.     

Outsiders in economic integrationThe case of a transition economy

We use a spatial model of endogenous growth to investigate the likely impact of discriminatory integration between two advanced insider countries on their own welfare as well as on the welfare of an outsider transition economy. A first point is that, since convergence in per capita income levels depends on relative market access and local market size, piece-wise integration causes insider-outsider divergence. Nonetheless, outsiders can gain in absolute terms if integration fosters the global growth rate. We also show that exclusion from a regional agreement and on-going transition have unpredictable joint effects on the structural adjustment, which might even exhibit a swinging behaviour. Such swings may imply large adjustment costs, which can be reduced by careful integration design. With this respect, the asymmetric phasing-out of trade barriers built into the Europe Agreements seems to work in the right direction. Finally, we point out that the predictions of the model in terms of direct investment and terms-of-trade dynamics are broadly consistent with some actual developments in transition economies.     

Product classifications,consumer characteristics,and patronage preference for online auction

An important unanswered question in the area of Internet auctions is what dynamics influences consumer preferences for shopping on these online auctions. Two key aspects of studying what sells on the Internet auctions are (a) the characteristics of products to be purchased and (b) consumer characteristics. This research focuses on the relationship between product purchase preference, prior experience, and socioeconomic characteristics for the online auction participants. It uses product classification theory rooted in information economics and marketing. The study results are based on a US national sample of online auction participants. The findings suggest that product class affects online auction patronage, yet socioeconomic characteristics may not be as influential as once perceived. The online merchants can benefit from the inquiry to improve auctions for search, experience, and credence goods. The five key contributions of the findings add value to the theory and practice of consumer behavior.     

Layoff taxes and minimum wage: Two complementary public policies

In a matching model in which the job destruction rate and the output are endogenous, we show that the presence of a binding minimum wage prompts firms to choose too risky jobs. Introducing layoff taxes therefore reduces unemployment and improves market efficiency.     

Report of the Fourteenth Finance Commission: A Review

Journal of Quantitative Economics -     

Assessment and forecast of the technological risks of long-term economic growth in Russia

The article discusses the current state of production facilities and infrastructure and provides a detailed assessment of their development and depreciation. It is emphasized that it is appropriate to consider the underfunding of this area of the economy, including the subsequent high accident rate and the increase in technological risks, as a set of socioeconomic (investment) debts. An assessment of these debts is given. The trends of technological risks of the economic growth and options for an investment maneuver to address the accumulated socioeconomic debts and reduce economic risks are considered in the context of two basic scenarios of economic development for the period 2011–2030.