Honesty and Informal Agreements

We develop, and experimentally test, models of informal agreements. Agents are assumed to be honest but suffer costs of overcoming temptations. We extend two classical bargaining solutions -- split-the-difference and deal-me-out -- to this informal agreement setting. For each solution there are two natural ways to do this, leaving us with 2x2 models to explore. In the experiment, a temptations-constrained version of deal-me-out emerges as the clear winner

Honesty and Informal Agreements

We develop, and experimentally test, models of informal agreements. Agents are assumed to be honest but suffer costs of overcoming temptations. We extend two classical bargaining solutions -- split-the-difference and deal-me-out -- to this informal agreement setting. For each solution there are two natural ways to do this, leaving us with 2x2 models to explore. In the experiment, a temptations-constrained version of deal-me-out emerges as the clear winner

DETERMINANTS OF TRUST IN THE INDONESIAN POTATO INDUSTRY: A COMPARISON AMONG GROUPS OF POTATO FARMERS

Indonesia’s potato industry is undergoing a rapid transformation, presenting producers with new and profitable opportunities to participate in sales to the modern channels. However, few farmers are involved in the new channels. This study offers an analysis of three groups of potato farmers’ perceptions of trust in their buyers. The aim is to understand the many different ways producers can enter modern chains and how different channels suit the individual characteristics of different producers. We surveyed 50 farmer field schools (FFS) producers, 60 Indofood suppliers, and 192 general potato farmers (GPF) in the largest potato producing area in Indonesia, West Java. Using MANOVA and linear regression methods, the study reveals that flexibility and dependence are determinate factors of trust in the three groups. Particularly among the FFS producers, relative price and firm size are factors identified to increase the farmers’ trust. Farmers contracting with Indofood establish the relationship with the firm in terms of reputation and flexibility. On the other hand, the GPF has more concerns about buyers offering price transparency and joint problem solving. This article provides a conceptual model and an empirical analysis of the buyer-seller relationship in the potato industry in Indonesia.buyer-seller relationships, trust, potato industry, Crop Production/Industries,

Norms and the Theory of the Firm

This paper discusses some of the attempts economists have made in the last ten years or so to integrate norms into the theory of the firm. The paper argues that (a) although norms are undoubtedly very important both inside and between firms, incorporating them into the theory has been very difficult and is likely to continue to be so in the near future; (b) so far norms have not added a great deal to our understanding of such issues as the determinants of firm boundaries (the "make-or-buy" decision)--that is, at this point a norm-free theory of the firm and a norm-rich theory of the firm don’t seem to have very different predictions.

Collusion, reputation damage and interest in code of conduct: The case of a Dutch construction company

In November 2001, a TV program showed that many large Dutch construction companies participated in price fixing. We analyze how one such company, Heijmans, reacted to the reputation crises after the TV program by introducing a code of conduct. We present the outcomes of a questionnaire survey conducted among 140 managers just after the TV program with respect to the relevance of such a code and discuss the change in attitude of the CEO of Heijmans following after the negative publicity.Corporate social responsibility; code of conduct; collusion; construction sector; reputation; parliamentary investigation; regulation

Norms and Law: Putting the Horse Before the Cart

Law and society scholars have long been fascinated with the interplay of formal legal and informal extralegal procedures. Unfortunately, the fascination has been accompanied by imprecision, and scholars have conceptually conflated two very different mechanisms that extralegally resolve disputes. One set of mechanisms might be described as the shadow of the law, made famous by seminal works by Professors Stewart Macaulay and Marc Galanter, in which social coercion and custom have force because formal legal rights are credible and reasonably defined. The other set of mechanisms, recently explored by economic historians and legal institutionalists, might be described as order without law, borrowing from Professor Robert Ellickson\u27s famous work.1 In this second mechanism, extralegal mechanisms—whether organized shunning, violence, or social disdain—replace legal coercion to bring social order and are an alternative to, not an extension of, formal legal sanctions. One victim of conflating these mechanisms has been our understanding of industry-wide systems of private law and private adjudication, or private legal systems. Recent examinations of private legal systems have chiefly understood those systems as efforts to economize on litigation and dispute-resolution costs, but private legal systems are better understood as mechanisms that economize on enforcement costs. This is not a small mischaracterization. Instead, it reveals a deep misunderstanding of when and why private enforcement systems arise in a modern economy. This Essay provides a taxonomy for the various mechanisms of private ordering. These assorted mechanisms, despite their important differences, have been conflated in large part because there has been a poor understanding of the particular institutional efficiencies and costs of the alternative systems. Specifically, enforcement costs have often been inadequately distinguished from procedural or disputeresolution costs, and this imprecision has produced theories that inaccurately predict when private ordering will thrive and when the costs of private ordering overwhelm corresponding efficiencies. The implications for institutional theory are significant, as confusion in the literature has led to overappreciation of private ordering, underappreciation of social institutions, and Panglossian attitudes toward both lawlessness and legal development

The Economic Dimension of Social Trust

The statistical analyses performed demonstrated a statistically significant correlation between the examined phenomena and proved that the highest developmental level is a characteristic feature of the districts with a high level of social trust. This conforms the claims of Polish and international scholars who see trust as a non-economic determinant of economic development

Can Integrity Replace Institutions? Theory and Evidence

Institutions are important for proper economic performance, but are replaceable by trust or other social norms. We show that when proper institutions and trust are missing, integrity of the individuals can replace them. We construct a model of a transactions-based economy with contracts preceding the transactions, and show that any one of (1) institutions, (2) trust, or (3) integrity, foster economic growth. We construct data of economic performance of social groups in Lebanon, measure integrity and other values of these groups, and use this data and data from Kenya to support one of the model’s predictions. Policy implications are discussed.economic development, institutions, integrity, Lebanon, social norms, trust

The economic value of ideology

Specialization and trade rest on institutions that protect property rights and enforce agreements. Frequently, in economic analysis institutions are just assumed to exist, or it is implicitly supposed that the political game can establish them. Once this assumption is done, the invisible hand does its work properly. It doesn’t matter if humans beings are benevolent or selfish for the gains from specialization and trade be realized. However, it is not easy to build institutions, neither are they a free lunch. The paper shows that ideology, understood as a self-imposed code of conduct, contributes to reduce the cost of instituting an industrious society, inducing people to assign their time and effort to productive activities rather than to theft.ideology, self-imposed codes of conduct, crime, enforcement of property rights.