Reciprocity in the Principal Multiple Agent Model

Giuseppe De Marco and Giovanni Immordino

CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy

Abstract: This paper studies how incentives are affected by intention-based reciprocity preferences when the principal hires many agents. Our results describe the agents' psychological attitudes required to sustain a given strategy profile. We also show that hiring reciprocal agents to implement a first or a second-best contract will always benefit the principal if the strategy profile is symmetric. When instead the profile (first or second-best) is asymmetric the principal's best interest might be better served by self-interested agents. We conclude the paper by clarifying when symmetric profiles are most likely to arise.

Keywords: reciprocity; many agents; psychological games (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D03 D86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-05-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cta, nep-evo, nep-gth, nep-hrm, nep-mic and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Reciprocity in the Principal–Multiple Agent Model (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sef:csefwp:314

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