A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts

Tournaments, reward structures based on rank order, are compared with individual contracts in a model with one risk-neutral principal and many risk-averse agents. Each agents' output is a stochastic function of his effort level plus an additive shock term that is common to all the agents. The principal observes only the output levels of the agents. It is shown that in the absence of a common shock, using optimal independent contracts dominates using the optimal tournament. Conversely, if the distribution of the common shock is sufficiently diffuse, using the optimal tournament dominates using optimal independent contracts. Finally, it is shown that for a sufficiently large number of agents, a principal who cannot observe the common shock but uses the optimal tournament, does as well as one who can observe the shock and uses independent contracts.

Human Capital, Product Quality, And Growth

A growth model is developed in which finite-lived individuals invest in human capital, and investments have a positive external effect on the human capital of later cohorts. Heterogeneous labor is the only factor of production, and higher-quality labor produces higher-quality goods. Stationary growth paths, along which human capital and the quality of consumption goods grow at a common, constant rate, are studied. It is also shown that if a small economy is very advanced or very backward relative to the rest of the world, then its rate of investment in human capital is lower under free trade than under autarky.

Money and Interest in a Cash-in-Advance Economy

In this paper we analyze an aggregative general equilibrimi model in which the use of money is motivated by a cash-in-advance constraint, applied to purchases of a subset of consumption goods. The system is subject to both real and monetary shocks, which are economy-wide and observed by all. We develop methods for verifying the existence of, characterizing, and explicitly calculating equilibria. A main result of the analysis is that current money growth affects the current real allocation only insofar as it affects expectations about future money growth, i.e., only through its value as a signal.

A note on dynamic programming with homogeneous functions

This note shows that basic theorems of dynamic programming hold when the return function is homogeneous of degree thetaProgramming (Mathematics) ; Econometrics

Human Capital, Product Quality, and Growth

A growth model is developed in which finite-lived individuals invest in human capital, and investments have a positive external effect on the human capital of later cohorts. Heterogeneous labor is the only factor of production, and higher-quality labor produces higher-quality goods. Stationary growth paths, along which human capital and the quality of consumption goods grow at a common, constant rate, are studied. It is also shown that if a small economy is very advanced or very backward relative to the rest of the world, then its rate of investment in human capital is lower under free trade than under autarky.