Contracts As Reference Points*
CONTRACTS AS REFERENCE POINTS* Oliver Hart and John Moore July 2006, revised March 2007 We argue that a contract provides a reference point for a trading relationship: more precisely, for parties’ feelings of entitlement. A party’s ex post performance depends on whether he gets what he is entitled to relative to outcomes permitted by the contract. A party who is shortchanged shades on performance. A flexible contract allows parties to adjust their outcome to uncertainty, but causes inefficient shading. Our analysis provides a basis for long-term contracts in the absence of noncontractible investments, and elucidates why “employment” contracts, which fix wage in advance and allow the employer to choose the task, can be optimal. * An early version of this paper was entitled “Partial Contracts.” We are particularly indebted to Andrei Shleifer and Jeremy Stein for useful comments and for urging us to develop Section V. We would also like to thank Philippe Aghion, Jennifer Arlen, Daniel Benjamin, Omri Ben- Shahar, Richard Craswell, Stefano Della Vigna, Tore Ellingsen, Florian Englmaier, Edward Glaeser, Elhanan Helpman, Ben Hermalin, Louis Kaplow, Emir Kamenica, Henrik Lando, Steve Leider, Jon Levin, Bentley MacLeod, Ulrike Malmendier, Sendhil Mullainathan, Al Roth, Jozsef Sakovics, Klaus Schmidt, Jonathan Thomas, Jean Tirole, Joel Watson, Birger Wernerfelt, two editors and three referees for helpful suggestions. In addition we have received useful feedback from audiences at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn,
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