Delegation with multiple instruments in a rent-seeking contest

Abstract : We consider delegation in a rent-seeking contest with two players, where delegates have more instruments at their disposal than the main players. We endogenize both the decision to hire a delegate and the contingent fee offered to the delegates. We characterize the situations when either no, one or two players hire a delegate in equilibrium. We show that the decision to hire a delegate depends in a non-monotone way on the size of the contested prize.

A delegated agent in a winner-take-all contest

We consider a winner-take-all contest extended with a principal-agent re-lationship. One of the two players, say player 1, offers a contract to an agent to act in the contest as a delegate on his behalf. The wage offered to the agent is deliberately chosen by player 1. We characterize the Nash equilibrium of this contest and com-pare its properties with those of the Nash equilibrium of the corresponding standard contest in which both players compete themselves. We show that the expected utility of player 1 is larger in the contest with a delegate if he is strongly risk averse with respect to his money income and moreover the contested prize is large enough.

The impact of advertising in a duopoly model

We investigate the impact of advertising in a simple static differentiated duopoly model. First, we consider the Nash equilibrium of the situation in which the duopolistic firms compete simultaneously with two instruments, i.e. the prices and the advertising expenditures. Second, we examine the Nash equilibrium of the situa-tion in which the firms only compete in prices and do not advertise at all. Next, we compare the two different Nash equilibria in order to assess the impact of advertising. In particular, we characterize in terms of the model parameters the circumstances in which the profits, outputs and/or prices of each firm are greater (smaller) in the Nash equilibrium with advertising than in the Nash equilibrium without advertising. We show that the results depend on (a) the size of the (positive) effect of advertising of a firm on its own demand, (b) the size and nature (stimulating or adverse) of the cross-effect of the advertising of each firm on the demand of the other firm, and (c) the size of the autonomous demand of the firms.

Price-setting behavior in the presence of social interactions

We argue in this paper that a more active market for corporate control may weaken the takeover threat. We show that an increase in the number of potential raiders tends to decrease the probability of a takeover. This in turn weakens managerial incentives. The lower managerial effort level that results in equilibrium negatively affects the ex ante value of the firm.

Rent seeking with efforts and bids

Abstract We analyse the development of world records speed skating from 1893 to 2000 for both men and women. The historical data show that it is likely that the relation between skating speed and distance of the various events is non-linear and converges to a limit value. We pay special attention to technical innovations in speed skating, especially, the introduction of the klapskate in the 1996/1997 season, and its impact on the long-run limit value. We focus on endurance and we estimate lower bounds for world records given the current technological state of the art.

Adding-up constraints and gross substitution in portfolio models

The paper considers a (static) portfolio system that satisfies adding-up contraints and the gross substitution theorem. The paper shows the relationship of the two conditions to the weak dominant diagonal property of the matrix of interest rate elasticities. This enables to investigate the impact of simultaneous changes in interest rates on the asset demands.

Price-setting behavior in the presence of social interactions

We argue in this paper that a more active market for corporate control may weaken the takeover threat. We show that an increase in the number of potential raiders tends to decrease the probability of a takeover. This in turn weakens managerial incentives. The lower managerial effort level that results in equilibrium negatively affects the ex ante value of the firm.