Foundations of incomplete contracts

Oliver Hart and John Moore

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In the last few years, a new area has emerged in economic theory, which goes under the heading of 'incomplete contracting'. However, almost since its inception, the theory has been under attack for its lack of rigorous foundations. In this paper we evaluate some of the criticisms that have been made of the theory, in particular, those in Maskin and Tirole (1998a). In doing so, we develop a model that provides a rigorous foundation for the idea that contracts are incomplete.

Keywords: Incomplete contracting; rigorous foundations; economic theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 1998-09
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/19354/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Foundations of Incomplete Contracts (1999)
Working Paper: Foundations of Incomplete Contracts (1998)
Working Paper: Foundations of Incomplete Contracts (1998)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:19354

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