Incomplete Contracts, Power and Efficiency: A Theoretical Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-188
Author(s):  
Sripad Motiram

This paper formalizes the idea that the allocation of tasks and adoption of technology in capitalist firms could be inefficient. Some previous studies have attempted this exercise, but the framework and results in this paper are different. The paper models contracts that are incomplete owing to the presence of unforeseen/indescribable contingencies, which opens up the possibility of renegotiation. Renegotiation can improve outcomes, but also leads to a hold-up problem. Given this, the equilibrium allocation is inefficient compared to other (non-hierarchical) alternatives. The extent of the inefficiency can be linked to the degree of incompleteness. This model captures insights from the literature on the microeconomic roots of inefficiency and the exercise of control and power. It also provides a concrete setting where indescribable contingencies do (and do not) matter—a much-debated issue. JEL Codes: D21, B1, B2

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-114
Author(s):  
Manash Ranjan Gupta ◽  
Priya Brata Dutta

We develop a static North–South model where North and South are interlinked through international tourism. Northern consumers have demand for southern non-tradable tourism service. Northern development generates additional income in the hands of northern consumers and thus raises their demand for tourism service in South. This leads to a reallocation of resources between the tourism sector and the non-tourism sector in South and thus affects its nature of development. We derive many interesting results from this model. International tourism can act as an engine to solve the poverty problem of southern workers through functional redistribution of southern income. However, it can also act as a constraint to southern economic growth through reduction in its level of investment. Northern development may lower the level of southern real income deflated by the price of southern non-traded tourism service and thus may lead to a welfare loss when the preferences of southern consumers are biased in favour of tourism service. In the case of a labour surplus South, northern development always raises the real income of South through international tourism. JEL Codes: F22, Z32


Author(s):  
A. Gómez ◽  
P. Schabes-Retchkiman ◽  
M. José-Yacamán ◽  
T. Ocaña

The splitting effect that is observed in microdiffraction pat-terns of small metallic particles in the size range 50-500 Å can be understood using the dynamical theory of electron diffraction for the case of a crystal containing a finite wedge. For the experimental data we refer to part I of this work in these proceedings.


2001 ◽  
Vol 84 (7) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Aki Yuasa ◽  
Daisuke Itatsu ◽  
Naoki Inagaki ◽  
Nobuyoshi Kikuma

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Hall

Patients who have undergone several sessions of chemotherapy for cancer will sometimes develop anticipatory nausea and vomiting (ANV), these unpleasant side effects occurring as the patients return to the clinic for a further session of treatment. Pavlov's analysis of learning allows that previously neutral cues, such as those that characterize a given place or context, can become associated with events that occur in that context. ANV could thus constitute an example of a conditioned response elicited by the contextual cues of the clinic. In order to investigate this proposal we have begun an experimental analysis of a parallel case in which laboratory rats are given a nausea-inducing treatment in a novel context. We have developed a robust procedure for assessing the acquisition of context aversion in rats given such training, a procedure that shows promise as a possible animal model of ANV. Theoretical analysis of the conditioning processes involved in the formation of context aversions in animals suggests possible behavioral strategies that might be used in the alleviation of ANV, and we report a preliminary experimental test of one of these.


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