Moral hazard in strategic decision making

This paper develops a theory of moral hazard in which the agent takes the role of strategic decision-maker. Career concerns give rise to preferences over risk, which in turn create an incentive for the agent to manipulate the project’s risk-return tradeoff to the disadvantage of the principal. The resultant moral hazard can be ameliorated by an incentive contract. The optimal non-decreasing wage involves granting ‘in-the-money’ options. In the context of academic tenure, the optimal tenure standard requires the agent to exceed expectations, and lies within one standard deviation of the expected outcome.