Journal article icon

Journal article

Gaming and strategic opacity in incentive provision

Abstract:
We study the benefits and costs of “opacity” (deliberate lack of transparency) of incentive schemes as a strategy to combat gaming by better informed agents. In a two‐task moral hazard model in which only the agent knows which task is less costly, the agent has an incentive to focus his effort on the less costly task. Opaque schemes, which make a risk‐averse agent uncertain about which task will be more highly rewarded, mitigate such gaming but impose more risk. We identify environments in which opaque schemes not only dominate transparent ones, but also eliminate the costs of the agent's hidden information.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

Actions


Access Document


Files:
Publisher copy:
10.1111/1756-2171.12253

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
SSD
Department:
Economics
Oxford college:
Nuffield College
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0002-1673-1161


Publisher:
Wiley
Journal:
RAND Journal of Economics More from this journal
Volume:
49
Issue:
4
Pages:
819-85
Publication date:
2018-09-26
Acceptance date:
2018-04-06
DOI:
EISSN:
1756-2171
ISSN:
0741-6261


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
pubs:601323
UUID:
uuid:5eb99369-e879-49ae-b44f-b3b0a9caf127
Local pid:
pubs:601323
Source identifiers:
601323
Deposit date:
2018-11-20

Terms of use



Views and Downloads






If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record

TO TOP