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1987•The RAND Journal of EconomicsRequires access

Competition for Agency Contracts

R. Preston McAfee, John McMillan

Open publisher page 257 citations

Abstract

This article introduces a market for the services of agents into a principal-agent model. The principal and the potential agents are risk neutral. The contract trades off adverse selection against moral hazard. In a broad range of circumstances the optimal contract is linear in the outcome. In an incentive-compatible contract the more able is an agent, the larger is his contractual share of his marginal output; thus, a more able agent is induced to work at a rate closer to the first-best.

About this research paper

What this paper is about

This article introduces a market for the services of agents into a principal-agent model. The principal and the potential agents are risk neutral. The contract trades off adverse selection against moral hazard. In a broad range of circumstances the optimal contract is linear in the outcome. In an incentive-compatible contract the more able is an agent, the larger is his contractual share of his marginal output; thus, a more able agent is induced to work at a rate closer to the first-best.

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OpenAlex reports 257 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

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Available abstract

This article introduces a market for the services of agents into a principal-agent model. The principal and the potential agents are risk neutral. The contract trades off adverse selection against moral hazard. In a broad range of circumstances the optimal contract is linear in the outcome. In an incentive-compatible contract the more able is an agent, the larger is his contractual share of his marginal output; thus, a more able agent is induced to work at a rate closer to the first-best.

Key concepts: Adverse selection, Moral hazard, Principal (computer security), Incentive, Agency (philosophy), Principal–agent problem, Competition (biology), Outcome (game theory)

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