Symmetry in Bargaining and Efficient Contracts under Asymmetric Information

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-142
Author(s):  
Arijit Sen
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Agency Model ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Interdependent Values ◽  
Model Contract

This paper shows that in a Spencian agency model, contract determination through alternating-offer bargaining can generate efficient outcomes. This result holds in parameter regimes in which the screening equilibrium (where the uninformed principal makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to the agent) and the signalling equilibrium (where the informed agent makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to the principal) both predict inefficient contracts. More generally, this paper clarifies that in negotiations under incomplete information involving interdependent values, symmetry in the bargaining protocol can limit the extent of allocation inefficiencies and can lead to ex post efficient agreements.

scholarly journals Social Preferences, Public Policy, and Gender

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Zahn ◽  
Evguenia Winschel
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Strategic Interaction ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Symmetric Information ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Ex Post Analysis

In most laboratory experiments concerning prosocial behavior subjects are fully informed how their decision influences the payoff of other players. Outside the laboratory, for instance when voting for a policy reform proposal, individuals typically have to decide without such detailed knowledge. To assess the effect of information asymmetries on prosocial behavior, we conduct a laboratory experiment with a simple non-strategic interaction. A dictator has only limited knowledge about the benefits his prosocial action generates for a recipient. We observe subjects with heterogenous social preferences, in particular inequalityaverse and efficiency-concerned individuals. While under symmetric information only individuals with the same type of preferences transfer, under asymmetric information different types transfer at the same time. As a consequence and the main finding of our experiment, uninformed dictators behave more prosocially than informed dictators. In an ex-post analysis of our experiment we also find that the differences in behavior under symmetric information are mostly driven by gender: women tend to be more inequality-averse, men tend to be more efficiency-concerned. Yet, both transfer under asymmetric information.

scholarly journals Selling with evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-371
Author(s):  
Frédéric Koessler ◽  
Vasiliki Skreta
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Product Quality ◽  
Optimal Allocation ◽  
Pareto Optimal ◽  
Principal Problem ◽  
Equilibrium Allocation ◽  
Interdependent Values ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Private Value ◽  
Posted Price

We study the informed‐principal problem in a bilateral asymmetric information trading setting with interdependent values and quasi‐linear utilities. The informed seller proposes a mechanism and voluntarily certifies information about the good's characteristics. When the set of certifiable statements is sufficiently rich, we show that there is an ex ante profit‐maximizing selling procedure that is an equilibrium of the mechanism proposal game. In contrast to posted price settings, the allocation obtained when product characteristics are commonly known (the unravelling outcome) may not be an equilibrium allocation, even when all buyer types agree on the ranking of product quality. Our analysis relies on the concept of strong Pareto optimal allocation, which was originally introduced by Maskin and Tirole (1990) in private value environments.

Strategic Interaction and Interstate Crises: A Bayesian Quantal Response Estimator for Incomplete Information Games

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Esarey ◽  
Bumba Mukherjee ◽  
Will H. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
Quantal Response ◽  
Crisis Bargaining ◽  
Incomplete Information Games ◽  
Information Characteristics ◽  
Information Games

Private information characteristics like resolve and audience costs are powerful influences over strategic international behavior, especially crisis bargaining. As a consequence, states face asymmetric information when interacting with one another and will presumably try to learn about each others' private characteristics by observing each others' behavior. A satisfying statistical treatment would account for the existence of asymmetric information and model the learning process. This study develops a formal and statistical framework for incomplete information games that we term the Bayesian Quantal Response Equilibrium Model (BQRE model). Our BQRE model offers three advantages over existing work: it directly incorporates asymmetric information into the statistical model's structure, estimates the influence of private information characteristics on behavior, and mimics the temporal learning process that we believe takes place in international politics.

The Equilibrium Relationships between Performance-Based Pay, Performance, and the Commission and Detection of Fraudulent Misreporting

2018 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buhui Qiu ◽  
Steve L. Slezak
Keyword(s):  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Internal Governance ◽  
Managerial Incentive ◽  
Agency Model ◽  
Signal Jamming ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Information Manipulation ◽  
Performance Based Pay ◽  
Equilibrium Relationships ◽  
Governance Costs

ABSTRACT We develop an agency model in which managerial information manipulation creates pooling and entails ex post costs internal and/or external to the firm. We examine the implications of the strategic interactions between shareholders (who set internal governance and managerial incentive compensation), the manager (who exerts effort and reports on its outcome), and an external regulatory authority or RA (who investigates for fraud and levies penalties ex post). When the RA cannot pre-commit to an ex post investigation strategy, a fraudulent equilibrium obtains if the firm's internal governance costs are sufficiently high. Consistent with (so far fairly scant) post-SOX empirical evidence, but the opposite of the implications of signal-jamming models and equilibria with pre-commitment, the model implies an increase in minimum internal governance standards or ex post fraud penalties (as with SOX) results in decreased equilibrium pay-for-performance sensitivity and firm performance.

Institutions and information in multilateral bargaining experiments

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 485-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Shupp ◽  
John Cadigan ◽  
Pamela M. Schmitt ◽  
Kurtis J. Swope
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Uniform Distribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Multilateral Bargaining ◽  
Bargaining Experiments ◽  
Alternating Offers

Abstract This paper examines the behavior in multilateral bargaining experiments with alternating offers and asymmetric information. In all experiments, a single buyer has up to ten bargaining periods to purchase one unit of a good from each of two sellers. Treatments vary based on who makes the first offer (buyer or sellers), timing (consistent buyer-offer/sellers-demand or alternating), and information (buyer’s value and sellers’ costs are known or come from a uniform distribution). We find that actual bargaining outcomes are virtually identical when offers alternate, regardless of which player makes the first offer. We find that alternating offers reduce bargaining delay slightly compared to treatments in which one side or the other makes repeated take-it-or-leave-it offers. Finally, we find that incomplete information increases bargaining delay and the likelihood of failed agreements.

scholarly journals Platform Competition under Asymmetric Information

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Hałaburda ◽  
Yaron Yehezkel
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Market Failure ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Exclusive Dealing ◽  
Platform Competition ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Market Inefficiency ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Do So

We consider platform competition in a two-sided market, where the two sides (buyers and sellers) have ex ante uncertainty and ex post asymmetric information concerning the value of a new technology. We find that platform competition may lead to a market failure: competition may result in a lower level of trade and lower welfare than a monopoly, if the difference in the degree of asymmetric information between the two sides is below a certain threshold. Multi-homing solves the market failure resulting from asymmetric information. However, if platforms can impose exclusive dealing, then they will do so, which results in market inefficiency. (JEL D41, D42, D82, D83, L11, L12)

scholarly journals The Efficiency of Real-World Bargaining: Evidence from Wholesale Used-Auto Auctions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley J Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Real World ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Efficient Frontier ◽  
Gains From Trade ◽  
Efficiency Loss ◽  
Car Industry ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Used Car

Abstract This study empirically quantifies the efficiency of a real-world bargaining game with two-sided incomplete information. Myerson and Satterthwaite (1983) and Williams (1987) derived the theoretical ex-ante efficient frontier for bilateral trade under two-sided uncertainty and demonstrated that it falls short of ex-post efficiency, but little is known about how well bargaining performs in practice. Using about 265,000 sequences of a game of alternating-offer bargaining following an ascending auction in the wholesale used-car industry, this study estimates (or bounds) distributions of buyer and seller values and evaluates where realized bargaining outcomes lie relative to efficient outcomes. Results demonstrate that the ex-ante and ex-post efficient outcomes are close to one another, but that the real bargaining falls short of both, suggesting that the bargaining is indeed inefficient but that this inefficiency is not solely due to the information constraints highlighted in Myerson and Satterthwaite (1983). Quantitatively, findings indicate that over one-half of failed negotiations are cases where gains from trade exist, leading an efficiency loss of 12–23% of the available gains from trade.

scholarly journals Outsourcing under incomplete information

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarun Kabiraj ◽  
Uday Bhanu Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Asymmetric Information ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Fixed Cost ◽  
Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Plant Level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show that outsourcing can occur as outcome of a separating or pooling perfect Bayesian equilibrium although it is not profitable under complete information. Therefore, asymmetric information can itself be a reason for outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach The present paper constructs a model of two firms interacting in the product market under asymmetric information where one firm has private information about its technological capability, and it has the option to produce inputs in-house or buy inputs from an input market. However, using outsourced inputs involves a fixed cost at the plant level. The model solves for perfect Bayesian equilibrium. Findings There are situations when under complete information, outsourcing of the input will not occur, but, under incomplete information, either only the low-cost type or both high and low-cost types will go for outsourcing, and there always exist reasonable beliefs supporting these equilibria. In particular, when the fixed cost is neither too small not too large, a separating equilibrium occurs in which the low-cost type outsources inputs from the input market but the high-cost type produces in-house; hence, outsourcing signals the firm’s type. Outsourcing by only the high-cost type firm will never occur in equilibrium. Originality/value That incomplete or asymmetric information can itself be a reason for strategic outsourcing is never identified in the literature. The present paper is an attempt to fill this gap and raise the issue of outsourcing in an incomplete information environment.

scholarly journals Obvious Ex Post Equilibrium

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 230-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shengwu Li
Keyword(s):  
Solution Concept ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Interdependent Values

I propose a new solution concept, obvious ex post (OXP) equilibrium. This is a formal standard of cognitive simplicity for mechanisms, in settings with interdependent values. Under some standard assumptions, the ascending auction has an efficient OXP equilibrium. I discuss a decision theoretic foundation for OXP mechanisms.

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