Dynamic contracting under imperfect public information and asymmetric beliefs

We develop a dynamic principal–agent model to show how imperfect public information and asymmetric beliefs about payoff-relevant parameters, agency conflicts, and the agent's implicit incentives to influence the principal's posterior beliefs through his unobservable actions interact to affect optimal dynamic contracts. We make a methodological contribution to the literature by solving the continuous-time contracting problem using a discrete-time approximation approach. We obtain a simple characterization of optimal renegotiation-proof contracts in terms of the solution to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). We then exploit the properties of the ODE to derive a number of novel implications for the dynamics of long-term contracts that alter the intuition gleaned from the previous literature. Optimism has a first-order impact on incentives, investment and output that could reconcile the “private equity” puzzle. Consistent with empirical evidence, the interaction between asymmetric beliefs, risk-sharing and adverse selection costs could cause the time-paths of the agent's incentive intensities to be increasing or decreasing. Our results also suggest that the incorporation of imperfect public information and asymmetric beliefs could potentially reconcile empirical evidence of an ambiguous relation between risk and incentives, and a non-monotonic relation between firm value and incentives. Permanent and transitory components of risk have differing effects on incentives, which suggest that empirical investigations of the link between risk and incentives should appropriately account for different components of risk.     

价格涨跌幅机制对市场波动及换手率的影响

文章调查了价格限制机制对股票价格波动以及市场流动性的影响。首先刻画了实行价格涨跌幅限制后股票价格的变化特征,研究价格限制机制对股票价格波动的影响;随后在考虑延续冲击效应因素的基础上,通过对引入价格限制机制后投资者总成本的考察,研究了该机制对市场流动性的影响。文章结论认为,股票价格涨跌幅限制机制的引入,将增加股票市场的波动性,并且会导致投资者心理所能承受的潜在收益、损失量减小,使投资者更加频繁地买卖股票．从而增加市场换手率,进而提高整个市场的流动性。     

Matching, search and intermediation with two-sided heterogeneity

This paper analyzes the role played by intermediation in a decentralized market, where trade is carried out through bilateral bargaining, and where the bargaining outcome depends on the process of search for suitable trading partners. To this purpose, a monopolistic intermediary is embedded in a dynamic model of random-matching and two-sided search with heterogeneous agents. It is shown that intermediation might speed up the matching process and might induce separation of the agents’ types, thus enhancing sorting efficiency with respect to a pure search market, where sorting externalities cause multiplicity of equilibria to arise and determine inefficient matching outcomes. Nonetheless, intermediation might also introduce frictions that do not exist in a decentralized market operating in isolation, and this impairs efficiency.      

A general endogenous grid method for multi-dimensional models with non-convexities and constraints

The endogenous grid method (EGM) significantly speeds up the solution of stochastic dynamic programming problems by simplifying or completely eliminating root-finding. We propose a general and parsimonious EGM extended to handle (1) multiple continuous states and choices, (2) multiple occasionally binding constraints, and (3) non-convexities such as discrete choices. Our method enjoys the speed gains of the original one-dimensional EGM, while avoiding expensive interpolation on multi-dimensional irregular endogenous grids. We explicitly define a broad class of models for which our solution method is applicable, and illustrate its speed and accuracy using a consumption–saving model with both liquid assets and illiquid pension assets and a discrete retirement choice.     

State antitrust enforcement in the US and implications for small business entry and relocation

This article examines the impact of the important, yet little studied, state-level antitrust enforcement activity on entry and relocation behaviour by small US firms. Feinberg and Husted (2011) have shown that this enforcement, especially nonhorizontal cases, may be viewed by potential entrants as a negative aspect of the state business climate. However, they did not pursue a more disaggregate analysis of small firm entry behaviour; nor did they investigate different responses between manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing firms. Another related issue is the extent to which state cases filed in tandem with federal investigations have the same impact on establishment entry as do purely ‘independent’ cases. These considerations are dealt with in this article. The author uses annual state-level data from the Statistics of US Business to examine entry and relocation reactions to state antitrust enforcement by firms within three small-business categories: 1–19 employees; 20–99 employees; 100–499 employees. Generally speaking, the smallest retail and wholesale firms seem to favour vigorous antitrust activity, especially enforcement targeted against cartel behaviour by suppliers. The largest small-firm retailers and wholesalers (those with 100–499 employees) seem somewhat threatened by such activity, especially the more controversial nonhorizontal enforcement. However, it must be acknowledged that the effects on entry or relocation of small firms – both positive and negative – are quite small.     

Completing the State Space with Subjective States

We define an opportunity act as a mapping from an exogenously given objective state space to a set of lotteries over prizes, and consider preferences over opportunity acts. We allow the preferences to be possibly uncertainty averse. Our main theorem provides an axiomatization of the maxmin expected utility model. In the theorem we construct subjective states to complete the objective state space. As in E. Dekel et al. (Econometrica, in press), we obtain a unique subjective state space. We also allow for preference for flexibility in some of the subjective states and commitment in others. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: D81.     

Stochastic growth: asymptotic distributions

Summary. This note studies conditions under which sequences of state variables generated by discrete-time stochastic optimal accumulation models have law of large numbers and central limit properties. Productivity shocks with unbounded support are considered. Instead of restrictions on the support of the shock, an “average contraction” property is required on technology. Received: August 27, 2001; revised version: January 9, 2002 RID="*" ID="*"The author thanks John Creedy and Rabee Tourky for helpful comments, and the Economic Theory Center, University of Melbourne for financial support.     

关于完善我国审前拘押体制之探析

我国在审前拘押环节上还存在许多不够完善的地方。为使之与国际标准接轨,应改变现行侦押合一的 拘押管理模式,尽快完善司法审查体制、诉讼迅速等相关制度和原则,以遏制超期羁押、刑讯逼供等现象的发生。     

基于Mathematica的中心极限定理的实验分析

基于Mathematica讨论了二项分布与正态分布之间的关系,对棣莫弗-拉普拉斯中心极限定理进行实验研究,通过图像演示和相对误差分析,给出二项分布的极限分布及其相应的准确度分析,并得出了一些计算概率的近似公式.     

股份公司股东表决权限缩的激励分析

在股份公司的多方利益相关主体中,股东拥有表决权。一股一权是表决权行使的基本原则,但在公司实践中还存在股东的表决权由于特定原因被限缩的情形,这一现象蕴藏着深刻的激励因素,其中包括产权的赋予和责任的配置。