Self-interest through Delegation: An Additional Rationale for the Principal-Agent Relationship

摘要

In the standard economic analysis of the principal-agent relationship, principals are assumed to hire agents because delegation confers efficiencies, as the agent either possesses special ability or has a lower opportunity cost of time or effort. The central focus of the literature on principal-agent relationships has been on how to design monitoring and incentive schemes that enable these advantages to be realized despite the fact that agents typically face different incentives and possess different information than the principals who employ them (Paul R. Milgrom and John Roberts 1992; Patrick Bolton and Mathias F. Dewatripont 2005).