A Polynomial Optimization Approach to Principal–Agent Problems

This paper presents a new method for the analysis of moral hazard principal–agent problems. The new approach avoids the stringent assumptions on the distribution of outcomes made by the classical first‐order approach and instead only requires the agent's expected utility to be a rational function of the action. This assumption allows for a reformulation of the agent's utility maximization problem as an equivalent system of equations and inequalities. This reformulation in turn transforms the principal's utility maximization problem into a nonlinear program. Under the additional assumptions that the principal's expected utility is a polynomial and the agent's expected utility is rational in the wage, the final nonlinear program can be solved to global optimality. The paper also shows how to first approximate expected utility functions that are not rational by polynomials, so that the polynomial optimization approach can be applied to compute an approximate solution to nonpolynomial problems. Finally, the paper demonstrates that the polynomial optimization approach extends to principal–agent models with multidimensional action sets.     

Impatience versus Incentives

This paper studies the dynamics of long‐term contracts in repeated principal–agent relationships with an impatient agent. Despite the absence of exogenous uncertainty, Pareto‐optimal dynamic contracts generically oscillate between favoring the principal and favoring the agent.     

信访制度下村干部的多重身份和生成逻辑

村干部因直接接触上访群体和落实信访政策而成为信访研究热点。多数研究文献对村干部的定位是上访事件筛选者,忽视了村干部在信访制度中的多重身份。在转型时期的信访制度下,村干部不仅是沟通“国家—社会”的双向代理人:既协助国家维持基层稳定又嵌入乡村社会关系网络中;而且可能成为上访制造者:或因侵害村民合法利益使自己成为信访事由,或因治理需求和私利驱动参与村民上访。这些都表现出信访场域中村干部的身份的复杂性,其生成与“国家—社会”的结构夹缝、信访制度的刚性和资源下乡的拐点密不可分,分析这三重逻辑有助于全面理解基层官员与制度运作之间的互动和乡村治理权力再生产的过程。     

基于不同法人治理结构的烤烟专业合作社绩效评价

利用陕西省安康、商洛和宝鸡3市38家烤烟专业合作社的调查数据,基于不同法人治理结构视角,运用层次分析法构建绩效评价指标体系对两种不同类型的烤烟专业合作社进行实证分析。研究结果表明:38家烤烟专业合作社可以根据法人治理结构的不同分为“外部委托代理人型”与“内部委托代理人型”两种类型。“外部委托代理人型”烤烟专业合作社在社员人数、理事会核心成员构成比例、股权集中程度及监督力度等法人治理结构方面具有明显的优势,在吸纳了更多的农户入社、提高烤烟专业合作社经济收益的同时,也保证了绝大多数农户在股权分配、民主决策参与及合作社监督等方面的权利。这有利于基层民主的完善,有利于显著提高烤烟专业合作社管理效率,从而提高农户整体烟叶生产水平。因此,改善法人治理结构是促进农民专业合作社发展的重要途径。     

Modeling stereotypes and negative self‐stereotypes as a function of interactions among groups with power asymmetries

Stereotypes is one of the most researched topics in social psychology. Within this context, negative self‐stereotypes pose a particular challenge for theories. In the current work, we propose a model that suggests that negative self‐stereotypes can theoretically be accounted for by the need to communicate in a social system made up by groups with unequal power. Because our theory is dynamic, probabilistic, and interactionist, we use a computational simulation technique to show that the proposed model is able to reproduce the phenomenon of interest, to provide novel accounts of related phenomena, and to suggest novel empirical predictions. We describe our computational model, our variables' dynamic behavior and interactions, and link our analyses to the literature on stereotypes and self‐stereotypes, the stability of stereotypes (in particular, gender and racial stereotypes), the effects of power asymmetries, and the effects of intergroup contact.     

Modeling the impact of supra-structural network nodes: The case of anonymous syringe sharing and HIV among people who inject drugs

Networks are well understood as crucial to the diffusion of HIV among injection drug users (IDUs), but quasi-anonymous risk nodes - such as shooting galleries - resist measurement and incorporation into empirical analyses of disease diffusion. Drawing on network data from 767 IDUs in Bushwick, Brooklyn, we illustrate the use of calibrated agent-based models (CABMs) to account for network structure, injection practices, and quasi-anonymous transmission in shooting galleries. Results confirm the importance of network structure and actor heterogeneity to the magnitude and speed of HIV transmission. Models further demonstrate that quasi-anonymous injections in shooting galleries increase the speed of HIV diffusion across the whole network and have the greatest impact on HIV seroconversion levels for IDUs at the network periphery. Shooting galleries are shown to be transmission hubs that operate independently of traceable structural ties, linking otherwise unconnected network components. CABMs potentially increase understandings of HIV diffusion dynamics by infusing computer simulations with empirical data.     

Supply Chain Strategies and International Tax Arbitrage

What motivates the geographic footprint of the supply chains that multinational firms (MNFs) deploy? Traditional research in the operations and supply chain management literature tends to recommend locations primarily based on differentials in production costs and the ramifications of physical distance ignoring the role of taxation. MNFs that strategically position parts of their supply chains in low‐tax locations can allocate the profits across the divisions to improve post‐tax profits. For the profit allocation to be defensible to tax authorities, the divisional operations must possess real decision authority and bear meaningful risks. Generally speaking, the greater the transfer of risk and control, the larger the allowable allocation of profit. These transfers may also create inefficiencies due to misalignment of business goals and attitudes toward risk. We model these trade‐offs in the context of placing in a low‐tax region a subsidiary that oversees product distribution (as a limited risk distributor commissionnaire, limited risk distributor, or fully fledged distributor). Our analysis demonstrates that the MNF's preferences regarding the operating structures are not necessarily an obvious ordering based on the amount of risk and decision authority transferred to the division in the low‐tax jurisdiction. We derive and analyze threshold values of the performance parameters that describe the main trade‐offs involved in selecting an operating structure. We find some of the optimal decisions to exhibit interesting non‐monotone behavior. For instance, profits can increase when the tax rate in the low‐tax jurisdiction increases. Numerical analysis shows that the Limited‐Risk Distributor structure is rarely optimal and quantifies when each alternative dominates it.     

民事诉讼代理视野下的“草根律师”制度——以成都地区为例

民事诉讼代理制度作为现代民事诉讼制度中的一项重要制度,是法律面前人人平等原则的重要体现和保障。但是在我国农村劳动力向城镇转移、劳动纠纷增多的时代背景下,我国民事诉讼代理制度日益暴露出一系列的问题。课题组通过大量的实证调研,拟从民事诉讼代理制度的基础理论出发,结合我国目前农民工维权的实际,在理论上初步构建“来自于农民工,服务于农民工”的“草根律师”制度,解决有关农民工劳动纠纷案件中的诉讼代理难的相关问题。     

不对称信息下风险投资家与风险企业家之间的委托代理问题研究

风险投资体系以多重激励和不对称信息为特征,风险投资的三方利益主体之间存在着双重委托-代理关系,有效控制代理风险是风险投资高效运作的基本前提。本文基于信息经济学原理,分析了风险投资家与风险企业家之间代理风险的成因,并从委托人的角度讨论了风险治理的原则和投资契约的构造。     

论关联交易的结构与监管策略——借助经济学理论的功能分析

借助经济学中代理问题理论的分析,发现关联交易或称自我交易,包含代理人、委托人以及作为委托人交易对手的代理人的关联方这三方主体。相对应地,关联交易本身并不是一个交易关系,而是包含着委托代理关系、交易关系和关联关系的一个关系束。因此,从功能分析的角度出发,在监管关联交易时,法律也应当针对这三者之间存在的具有不同特点的关系来有的放矢地设定相应的规制规则。