Contract Theory
by Patrick Bolton
On This Page
Description
A comprehensive introduction to contract theory, emphasizing common themes and methodologies as well as applications in key areas. Despite the vast research literature on topics relating to contract theory, only a few of the field's core ideas are covered in microeconomics textbooks. This long-awaited book fills the need for a comprehensive textbook on contract theory suitable for use at the graduate and advanced undergraduate levels. It covers the areas of agency theory, information show more economics, and organization theory, highlighting common themes and methodologies and presenting the main ideas in an accessible way. It also presents many applications in all areas of economics, especially labor economics, industrial organization, and corporate finance. The book emphasizes applications rather than general theorems while providing self-contained, intuitive treatment of the simple models analyzed. In this way, it can also serve as a reference for researchers interested in building contract-theoretic models in applied contexts.The book covers all the major topics in contract theory taught in most graduate courses. It begins by discussing such basic ideas in incentive and information theory as screening, signaling, and moral hazard. Subsequent sections treat multilateral contracting with private information or hidden actions, covering auction theory, bilateral trade under private information, and the theory of the internal organization of firms; long-term contracts with private information or hidden actions; and incomplete contracts, the theory of ownership and control, and contracting with externalities. Each chapter ends with a guide to the relevant literature. Exercises appear in a separate chapter at the end of the book. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I've only used the first couple of chapters. My main complaint is that the authors are too brief with their math and some of the diagrams are very poorly labelled. I never had as much trouble following a textbook as this. Equations appear out of nowhere without proper explanation on what to do with it (what do we maximize, wrt to which variable?)
The topics are fascinating though. I think a new edition is in order - with better pedagogy. Unfortunately this text fills a niche. You won't be able to find another textbook that covers contract theory at this level.
The topics are fascinating though. I think a new edition is in order - with better pedagogy. Unfortunately this text fills a niche. You won't be able to find another textbook that covers contract theory at this level.
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
5 Works 66 Members
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 51
- Popularity
- 585,011
- Reviews
- 1
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
