Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Library,Documentation and Information Science Division

“A research journal serves that narrow

borderland which separates the known from the unknown”

-P.C.Mahalanobis


Image from Google Jackets

Theory of incentives in procurement and regulation/ Jean-Jacques Laffont, Jean Tirole

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993Description: xxii,705 pages; dig.; 27 cmISBN:
  • 0262121743
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 338.82 L163
Contents:
Introduction -- I. Price and Rate of Return Regulation -- Pricing by a single Product firm with and without Budget Balance -- Pricing and Incentives in a Multiproduct firm -- Regulation of Quality -- II. Product Market competition -- Competitive Ramsey formulas and access pricing -- Bypass and cream skimming -- III. Bidding for Natural monopoly -- Auctioning Incentive contracts -- Repeated auctions of Incentive contracts, Investment, and Bidding Parity -- IV. The dynamics of Regulations -- Dynamics without Commitment and the Ratchet Effect -- Commitment and Renegotiation -- V. The Politics o Regulations -- Regulatory Capture -- Cost Padding, auditing and conclusion -- Cartelization by regulation -- Auction design and favoritism -- VI. Regulatory Institutions -- Regulatory Instruments, Hearings, and Interest group monitoring -- Commitment and political accountability -- Privatization and incentives
Summary: Based on their pathbreaking work in the application of principal-agent theory to questions of regulation, Laffont and Tirole develop a synthetic approach, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on the regulation of natural monopolies such as military contractors, utility companies, and transportation authorities. More then just a textbook, A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation will guide economists' research on regulation for years to come. It makes a difficult and large literature of the new regulatory economics accessible to the average graduate student, while offering insights into the theoretical ideas and stratagems not available elsewhere. Based on their pathbreaking work in the application of principal-agent theory to questions of regulation, Laffont and Tirole develop a synthetic approach, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on the regulation of natural monopolies such as military contractors, utility companies, and transportation authorities. The book's clear and logical organization begins with an introduction that summarizes regulatory practices, recounts the history of thought that led to the emergence of the new regulatory economics, sets up the basic structure of the model, and previews the economic questions tackled in the next seventeen chapters. The structure of the model developed in the introductory chapter remains the same throughout subsequent chapters, ensuring both stability and consistency. The concluding chapter discusses important areas for future work in regulatory economics. Each chapter opens with a discussion of the economic issues, an informal description of the applicable model, and an overview of the results and intuition. It then develops the formal analysis, including sufficient explanations for those with little training in information economics or game theory. Bibliographic notes provide a historical perspective of developments in the area and a description of complementary research. Detailed proofs are given of all major conclusions, making the book valuable as a source of modern research techniques. There is a large set of review problems at the end of the book.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Includes index, bibliography and references

Introduction --
I. Price and Rate of Return Regulation -- Pricing by a single Product firm with and without Budget Balance -- Pricing and Incentives in a Multiproduct firm -- Regulation of Quality --
II. Product Market competition --
Competitive Ramsey formulas and access pricing -- Bypass and cream skimming --
III. Bidding for Natural monopoly --
Auctioning Incentive contracts --
Repeated auctions of Incentive contracts, Investment, and Bidding Parity --
IV. The dynamics of Regulations --
Dynamics without Commitment and the Ratchet Effect --
Commitment and Renegotiation --
V. The Politics o Regulations --
Regulatory Capture --
Cost Padding, auditing and conclusion --
Cartelization by regulation --
Auction design and favoritism --
VI. Regulatory Institutions --
Regulatory Instruments, Hearings, and Interest group monitoring --
Commitment and political accountability --
Privatization and incentives

Based on their pathbreaking work in the application of principal-agent theory to questions of regulation, Laffont and Tirole develop a synthetic approach, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on the regulation of natural monopolies such as military contractors, utility companies, and transportation authorities. More then just a textbook, A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation will guide economists' research on regulation for years to come. It makes a difficult and large literature of the new regulatory economics accessible to the average graduate student, while offering insights into the theoretical ideas and stratagems not available elsewhere. Based on their pathbreaking work in the application of principal-agent theory to questions of regulation, Laffont and Tirole develop a synthetic approach, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on the regulation of natural monopolies such as military contractors, utility companies, and transportation authorities. The book's clear and logical organization begins with an introduction that summarizes regulatory practices, recounts the history of thought that led to the emergence of the new regulatory economics, sets up the basic structure of the model, and previews the economic questions tackled in the next seventeen chapters. The structure of the model developed in the introductory chapter remains the same throughout subsequent chapters, ensuring both stability and consistency. The concluding chapter discusses important areas for future work in regulatory economics. Each chapter opens with a discussion of the economic issues, an informal description of the applicable model, and an overview of the results and intuition. It then develops the formal analysis, including sufficient explanations for those with little training in information economics or game theory. Bibliographic notes provide a historical perspective of developments in the area and a description of complementary research. Detailed proofs are given of all major conclusions, making the book valuable as a source of modern research techniques. There is a large set of review problems at the end of the book.

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.
Library, Documentation and Information Science Division, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B T Road, Kolkata 700108, INDIA
Phone no. 91-33-2575 2100, Fax no. 91-33-2578 1412, ksatpathy@isical.ac.in