Inefficient Intra-Firm Incentives Can Stabilize Cartels in Cournot Oligopolies.

The need for intra-firm incentive schemes allows remodeling the Cournot duopoly in wages (rather than in output levels). In both versions of the Cournot model, a cartel agreement is unstable. The new formulation, however, allows us to demonstrate that a collective wage agreement on minimum wages can stabilize the cartel solution. Beyond its relevance for strategic management, this result has a policy implication: competition authorities should observe collective wage agreements for their potential collusive effect on product markets. Moreover, the model may provide a new explanation why firms in reality pay lower than efficient variable wages and higher fixed wages than predicted by contract theory. -- Die Oligopoltheorie klammert innerbetriebliche Konflikte i.a. aus. Die Notwendigkeit, Mitarbeiter durch Anreizschemata zu motivieren, ermöglicht es aber, das Cournot-Oligopol in Lohnsätzen zu reformulieren. Auch in dieser Formulierung sind Kartellvereinbarungen instabil; sie können jedoch über tarifvertragliche Mindestlöhne stabilisiert werden. Im Gegensatz zu Kartellvereinbarungen sind Tarifverträge rechtlich durchsetzbar. Dieses Resultat ist nicht nur für das strategische Management von Bedeutung, sondern auch für die Wirtschaftspolitik: Wettbewerbsbehörden sollten Tarifverträgen nicht nur wegen ihre Wirkung auf den Arbeitsmarkt Beachtung schenken, sondern auch wegen der möglichen Kartellstabilisierung auf dem Absatzmarkt. Schließlich kann das Modell einen Beitrag zur Lösung des "Fixlohnrätsels" leisten, da es erklärt, warum Unternehmen geringere variable und höhere fixe Löhne zahlen als von der Prinzipal-Agenten-Theorie vorhergesagt.Principal-agent theory,piece rate,fixed wage,collective wage agreements,Nash bargaining solution

Inefficient Intra-Firm Incentives Can Stabilize Cartels in Cournot Oligopolies

The instability of Cournot cartels can be overcome by a collective wage agreement if this agreement stipulates minimum fixed wages and piece rates that are legally enforceable. This new view on the institution of collective wage agreements is not only relevant for strategic management, it also has an important implication for economic policy: competition authorities should observe such agreements for their potentially collusive effect on product markets. Moreover, the model contributes to the explanation of the “fixed wage puzzle”, i.e., the observation that firms pay lower than efficient variable wages and higher fixed wages than predicted by contract theory.Piece rate, fixed wage, collective wage agreements

Less Rationality, More Efficiency: a Laboratory Experiment on "Lemon" Markets.

We have experimentally tested a theory of bounded rational behavior in a "lemon market". It provides an explanation for the observation that real world players successfully conclude transactions when perfect rationality predicts a market collapse. We analyzed two different market designs : complete and partial market collapse. Our empirical observations deviate substantially from these theoretical predictions. In both markets, the participants traded more than theoretically predicted. Thus, the actual outcome is closer to efficiency than the theoretical prediction. Even after 20 repetitions of the first market constellation, the number of transactions did not drop to zero. Our bounded rationality approach to explain these observations starts with the insight that perfect rationality would require the players to perform an infinite number of iterative reasoning steps. Bounded rational players, however, carry out only a limited number of such iterations. We have determined the iteration type of the players independently from their market behavior. A significant correlation exists between iteration types and observed price offers. --guessing games,beauty contests,market failure,adverse selection,lemon problem,regulatory failure,paternalistic regulation

Less Rationality, More Efficiency: a Laboratory Experiment on "Lemons" Markets

In this paper we experimentally test a theory of boundedly rational behavior in a "lemons market." We analyzed two different market designs, for which perfect rationality implies complete and partial market collapse, respectively. Our empirical observations deviate substantially from these predictions of rational choice theory: Even after 20 repetitions, the actual outcome is closer to efficiency than expected. Our bounded rationality approach to explaining these observations starts with the insight that perfect rationality would require the players to perform an infinite number of iterative reasoning steps. Boundedly rational players, however, carry out only a limited number of such iterations. We have determined the iteration type of the players independently from their market behavior. A significant correlation exists between the iteration types and the observed price offers. --guessing games,beauty contests,market failure,adverse selection,lemon problem,regulatory failure,paternalistic regulation

The “Rainmaker’s Dilemma:” Bad Debt Loss Insurance in Settlement and Litigation

In this paper, we analyze the impact of Bad Debt Loss Insurance on settlement outcomes. A huge success in a settlement or trial can turn into a disaster when the defendant goes bankrupt before paying the plaintiff’s claim. “Rainmakers” face the following dilemma: the greater the success, the greater the defendant’s bankruptcy risk. The starting point of our paper is a simple trial and litigation model with perfect and complete information. We add the possibility of a defendant’s bankruptcy, and of buying Bad Debt Loss Insurance for both the settlement and the trial stage. We demonstrate that trial insurance and settlement insurance have different impacts on the predicted outcome of settlement negotiations. Trial insurance tends to increase the settlement result; therefore, it generates a contract rent for the insurer and the insured. Settlement insurance, however, may have the opposite effect, as it decreases the settlement result.Strategic Insurance, British Cost Allocation Rule, Nash Bargaining Solution

Iterative Reasoning in an Experimental "Lemons" Market

In this paper we experimentally test a theory of boundedly rational behavior in a "lemons" market. We analyze two different market designs, for which perfect rationality implies complete and partial market collapse, respectively. Our empirical observations deviate substantially from the predictions of rational choice theory: Even after 20 repetitions, the actual outcome is closer to efficiency than expected. We examine to which extent the theory of iterated reasoning contributes to the explanation of these observations. Perfectly rational behavior requires a player to perform an infinite number of iterative reasoning steps. Boundedly rational players, however, carry out only a limited number of such iterations. We have determined the iteration type of the players independently from their market behavior. A significant correlation exists between the iteration types and the observed price offers

Europäischer Verbraucherschutz – Ausdruck grenzenloser Regulierungswut oder sinnvoller Schutz für Käufer? Erkenntnisse aus einem Laborexperiment.

The paper uses the results of a lemons market experiment to derive economic policy implications regarding the EU regulation on consumer protection. The two lemons market designs tested in the experiment differed with respect to the risk of purchasing bad quality which the uninformed consumers had to bear. In the high-risk market, but not in the low-risk market, consumers have suffered expected losses. This empirical result may justify a paternalistic regulation that makes warranties mandatory.

The "Rainmaker\u27s Dilemma": Bad Debt Loss Insurance in Settlement and Litigation

In this paper, we analyze the impact of Bad Debt Loss Insurance on settlement outcomes. A huge success in a settlement or trial can turn into a disaster when the defendant goes bankrupt before paying the plaintiff\u27s claim. "Rainmakers" face the following dilemma: the greater the success, the greater the defendant\u27s bankruptcy risk. The starting point of our paper is a simple trial and litigation model with perfect and complete information. We add the possibility of a defendant\u27s bankruptcy, and of buying Bad Debt Loss Insurance for both the settlement and the trial stage. We demonstrate that trial insurance and settlement insurance have different impacts on the predicted outcome of settlement negotiations. Trial insurance tends to increase the settlement result; therefore, it generates a contract rent for the insurer and the insured. Settlement insurance, however, may have the opposite effect, as it decreases the settlement result

Trading Goods versus Sharing Money - An Experiment Testing Wether Fairness and Efficiency are Frame Dependent

Systematic experiments with distribution games (for a survey, see Roth, 1995) have shown that participants are strongly motivated by fairness and efficiency considerations. This evidence, however, results mainly from experimental designs asking directly for sharing monetary rewards. But even when not just one kind of monetary tokens is distributed efficiency and fairness are less influential. We investigate and confirm this frame dependency more systematically by comparing net-trade-proposals and payoff-proposals for the same exchange economy with two traders, two commodities and multi-period-negotiations.

Trading goods versus sharing money : an experiment testing whether fairness and efficiency are frame dependent

Systematic experiments with distribution games (for a survey, see Roth, 1995) have shown that participants are strongly motivated by fairness and efficiency considerations. This evidence, however, results mainly from experimental designs asking directly for sharing monetary rewards. But even when not just one kind of monetary tokens is distributed efficiency and fairness are less influential. We investigate and confirm this frame dependency more systematically by comparing net-trade-proposals and payoff-proposals for the same exchange economy with two traders, two commodities and multi-period-negotiations