Conferences at Department of Economics, University of Toronto, Canadian Economic Theory Conference 2018

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Optimal Monitoring Design

George Georgiadis*, Balazs Szentes

Date: 2018-05-12 3:45 pm – 4:15 pm
Last modified: 2018-04-27

Abstract


This paper considers a Principal-Agent model with hidden action in which the Principal can monitor the Agent by acquiring independent signals conditional on effort at a constant marginal cost. The Principal aims to implement a target effort level at minimal cost. The main result of the paper is that the optimal information acquisition strategy is a two-threshold policy and, consequently, the equilibrium contract specifies two possible wages for the Agent. This result provides a rationale for the frequently observed single-bonus wage-contracts.

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