This dissertation analyzes the contracting problem between a firm and the research employees in its R&D department. The dissertation consists of two chapters. The first chapter addresses a simplified problem in which the R&D unit has only one agent. The second chapter studies a scenario in which the R&D unit consists of a team. In the first chapter, I look at problem in which a principal hires an agent to do a multi-stage R&D project. The transition from one stage to the next is modeled by a Poisson-type process, whose arrival rate depends on the agents choice of effort. I assume that effort choice is binary and unobservable by the principal. To overcome the repeated moral-hazard problem, the principal offers the agent a long-term contract which specifies a flow of payments based on his observation of the outcome of the project. The optimal contract combines rewards and punishments: the payment to the agent decrease over time in case of failure and jumps up to a higher level after each success. I also show that the optimal contract can be implemented by using a risky security that has some of the features of the stocks of these firms, thereby providing a theoretical justification for the wide-spread use of stock-based compensation in firms that rely on R&D. In the second chapter, I look at a scenario in which the R&D unit consists of a team, which I assume, for simplicity, comprises two risk-averse agents. Now, the Poisson arrival rate is jointly determined by the actions of both agents with the action of each remaining unobservable by both the principal and the other agent. I assume that when success in a phase occurs the principal can identify the agent who was responsible for it. In this model, incentive compatibility means that each agent is willing to exert effort conditional on his coworker putting in effort, and thus exerting effort continuously is a Nash-equilibrium strategy played by the agents. In this multiagent problem, each agents payment depends not only on his own performance, but is affected by the other agents performance as well. Similar to the single-agent case, an agent is rewarded when he succeeds, and his payment decreases over time when both agents fail. Regarding how an agents payment relates to his coworkers performance, I find that the optimal incentive regime is a function of the way in which agents efforts interact with one another: relative-performance evaluation is used when their efforts are substitutes whereas joint-performance evaluation is used when their efforts are complements. This result sheds new light on the notion of optimal incentive regimes, an issue that has been widely discussed in multi-agent incentive problems.

Submitted by Daniella Santos (daniella.santos@fgv.br) on 2009-08-07T12:36:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Vitor_Farinha_Luz.pdf: 490918 bytes, checksum: aa416ee14b87b54afbe7a5e0ec7e8088 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Antoanne Pontes(antoanne.pontes@fgv.br) on 2009-08-07T17:38:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Vitor_Farinha_Luz.pdf: 490918 bytes, checksum: aa416ee14b87b54afbe7a5e0ec7e8088 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2009-08-07T17:38:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Vitor_Farinha_Luz.pdf: 490918 bytes, checksum: aa416ee14b87b54afbe7a5e0ec7e8088 (MD5) / In economies characterized by both aggregate and privately observed idiosyn- cratic risks we show that constrained e¢cient allocations may display non-trivial dependence on aggregate shocks. Using two period versions of both a Atkeson and Lucas (1992) preference shock model and a dynamic Mirrlees (1971) economy we show that constrained optimal allocations have memory with respect to aggre- gate shocks despite their being i.i.d. and independent from idiosyncratic shocks, whenever the latter are not perfectly persistent. The fact that shocks may have per- sistent e¤ects on allocations despite their public and i.i.d nature, was rst shown by Phelan (1994) in a dynamic moral hazard economy with CARA preference. Our numerical simulations indicate that these are not knife-edge results: there is a monotonic relationship between private persistence and aggregate memory in many di¤erent environments. / Em economias caracterizadas por choques agregados e privados, mostramos que a alocação ótima restrita pode depender de forma não-trivial dos choques agregados. Usando versões dos modelos de Atkeson e Lucas (1992) e Mirrlees (1971) de dois períodos, é mostrado que a alocação ótima apresenta memória com relação aos choques agregados mesmo eles sendo i.i.d. e independentes dos choques individuais, quando esses últimos choques não são totalmente persistentes. O fato de os choques terem efeitos persistentes na alocação mesmo sendo informação pública, foi primeiramente apresentado em Phelan (1994). Nossas simulações numéricas indicam que esse não é um resultado pontual: existe uma relação contínua entre persistência de tipos privados e memória do choque agregado.

Esta tesis elabora una caracterización teórica de problemas de agencia dinámicos, basada en métodos recursivos duales. Respecto a las actuales estrategias de solución, la mayor ventaja de mi método es la posibilidad de analizar modelos complicados con muchas variables de estado, como es el caso en muchas situaciones macroeconómicas. El primer Capitulo introduce la metodología y presenta algunos ejemplos numéricos. El segundo Capitulo caracteriza contratos óptimos de participación al riesgo, en los dos casos de economía de dotación y de economía con producción, y demuestra que el método es muy simple en su aplicación a estos problemas. El tercer Capitulo analiza el seguro óptimo de desempleo bajo diferentes supuestos sobre el acceso al mercado financiero y la evolución del capital humano. / This thesis elaborates a theoretical characterization of general dynamic agency problems based on recursive duality methods. With respect to current solution strategies, the main advantage of my approach is the possibility to analyze complicated models with many state variables, as it is the case in several macroeconomic situations. The first Chapter introduces the methodology and provides some numerical example. The second Chapter provides a characterization of optimal risk sharing contracts both in endowment and production economies, and shows how the approach is easy to apply to these problems. The third Chapter analyzes optimal unemployment insurance under different assumptions on access to financial markets and human capital trends.

Ma thèse intitulée “Gouvernance d'entreprise et concurrence sur le marché des produits” est composée de trois chapitres théoriques relevant essentiellement de l'Économie Industrielle. L'objectif principal est d'étudier comment le marché des produits interagit à la fois avec l'intérêt des parties prenantes lorsque l'information est parfaite et avec les incitations managériales (statiques et dynamiques) lorsque l'information est imparfaite.Le premier chapitre porte sur les interactions entre le mode de concurrence sur le marché des produits (Cournot vs. Bertrand) et les relations (conflictuelles ou conciliantes) entre les principaux acteurs (actionnaires, consommateurs et employés) lorsque l'intérêt des consommateurs est pris en compte dans la fonction objectif de la firme. Nous considérons un duopole symétrique où les firmes négocient préalablement avec les syndicats sur le salaire versé aux employés et puis se concurrencent entre elles sur le marché des biens. Nous montrons que l'orientation client (mesurée par le degré de prise en compte du surplus des consommateurs) peut inverser la hiérarchie traditionnelle entre les équilibres de Cournot et les équilibres de Bertrand. Une concurrence en prix (par rapport à une concurrence en quantité) est à même d'atténuer les conflits entre les actionnaires et les consommateurs et entre les actionnaires et les employés.Le deuxième chapitre examine comment les incitations managériales pourraient interagir avec la concurrence sur le marché des produits dans un contexte de sélection adverse et d'aléa moral. Nous considérons un oligopole de Cournot composé de n firmes identiques dont le coût marginal initial est une information privée du manager. L'effort du manager, qui est non observable, réduit indirectement le coût marginal initial. Dans un tel contexte, nous montrons qu'à l'optimum les paiements incitatifs versés aux managers ne sont pas nécessairement influencés par la concurrence sur le marché des produits.Le troisième chapitre étudie comment le contrat optimal entre l'actionnaire et le manager (résolution d'aléa moral répété) peut influencer la stabilité d'un cartel. Nous considérons un cartel composé de deux firmes identiques et dans chaque firme un actionnaire neutre à l'égard du risque offre un menu de contrats à un manager averse au risque. L'effort du manager influence le coût marginal de la firme (comme au chapitre 2) à chaque période. Nous montrons que, contrairement au cas où l'information est parfaite, le degré d'aversion au risque du manager n'impacte pas la stabilité du cartel lorsque le contrat optimal à long terme est mis en place. Le contrat optimal résout le problème d'aléa moral répété et limite également le pouvoir discrétionnaire du manager sur la décision de conduite du marché (collusion, déviation, ou compétition). / My thesis entitled « Corporate governance and product market competition : three essays » is a theoretical research in industrial organization. The primary objective is to investigate how product market (competition or collusion) interacts with the top-level design of corporate governance, which concerns specifically the stakeholders' relationships and managerial incentives (static and dynamic) under imperfect information. It is mainly based on three chapters dealing with different subtopics of this theme.The first chapter examines how social concern and product market competition (Cournot vs. Bertrand) may influence the relationships (conflicting or conciliating) between main stakeholders (shareholders, consumers and employees). We consider two identical firms, both taking care of the interests of consumers in their objective functions and allowing their employees' wages be negotiated with labor unions. We show that social concern may reverse the traditional ranking between Cournot and Bertrand equilibria. Our model also shows that price competition (compared to quantity competition) can to some extent attenuate the shareholders' conflicts with both consumers and employees.The second chapter investigates how managerial incentive payment under both adverse selection and moral hazard might interact with product market competition. We consider a Cournot oligopoly market consisting of n identical managerial firms, of which the initial marginal cost is the manager's private information and his unobservable effort indirectly reduces the initial level of marginal cost. We show with this setting that the optimal incentive payment solving informational problems is not necessarily influenced by product market competition.The third chapter studies how the optimal contract between shareholder and manager (solving repeated moral hazard) may influence the stability of a cartel. We consider a cartel consisting of two identical firms, within each a risk neutral shareholder offers a menu of contracts to a risk-averse manager who may shirk in each period. The manager's unobservable effort influences the firm's marginal cost (as in chapter 2). We show in contrary with the benchmark case (under perfect information) that the degree of risk-aversion plays no longer a role upon the stability of collusion: when the managerial compensation is independent of gross profit, the implementation of the optimal long-term contract solves repeated moral hazard but also constrains the manager's discretion over the decision of market conduct (collusion, deviation, or competition).