| 来源类型 | Working Paper |
| 规范类型 | 报告 |
| DOI | 10.3386/w14501 |
| 来源ID | Working Paper 14501 |
| Contracts as Reference Points - Experimental Evidence | |
| Ernst Fehr; Oliver D. Hart; Christian Zehnder | |
| 发表日期 | 2008-11-20 |
| 出版年 | 2008 |
| 语种 | 英语 |
| 摘要 | In a recent paper, Hart and Moore (2008) introduce new behavioral assumptions that can explain long-term contracts and important aspects of the employment relation. However, so far there exists no direct evidence that supports these assumptions and, in particular, Hart and Moore's notion that contracts provide reference points. In this paper, we examine experimentally the behavioral forces stipulated in their theory. The evidence confirms the model's prediction that there is a tradeoff between rigidity and flexibility in a trading environment with incomplete contracts and ex ante uncertainty about the state of nature. Flexible contracts - which would dominate rigid contracts under standard assumptions - cause a significant amount of shading on ex post performance, while under rigid contracts, much less shading occurs. Thus, although rigid contracts rule out trading in some states of the world, parties frequently implement them. While our results are broadly consistent with established behavioral concepts, they cannot easily be explained by existing theories. The experiment appears to reveal a new behavioral force: ex ante competition legitimizes the terms of a contract, and aggrievement and shading occur mainly about outcomes within the contract. |
| 主题 | Microeconomics ; Other ; Law and Economics ; Econometrics ; Experimental Design |
| URL | https://www.nber.org/papers/w14501 |
| 来源智库 | National Bureau of Economic Research (United States) |
| 引用统计 | |
| 资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/572176 |
| 推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Ernst Fehr,Oliver D. Hart,Christian Zehnder. Contracts as Reference Points - Experimental Evidence. 2008. |
| 条目包含的文件 | ||||||
| 文件名称/大小 | 资源类型 | 版本类型 | 开放类型 | 使用许可 | ||
| w14501.pdf（223KB） | 智库出版物 | 限制开放 | CC BY-NC-SA | 浏览 | ||
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