Agents who perform interrelated tasks or work in similar local conditions often observe each other's actions and local signals. However, such information is often costly for the principal to obtain. Analytical models show that in such a situation, a peer reporting system with a verification mechanism (using one agents information to verify the others) and a reward for truthful whistle blowing can induce agents to report honestly and thereby help the principal achieve the first-best outcome. However, behavioral research suggests that the agents perception regarding the fairness of the principal as well as cheap talk among agents may affect both how honestly agents report and how willing they are to blow the whistle on their peers. The results of the experiment show that under a peer reporting system, the agents' perception regarding the fairness of the principal positively affects the agents reporting honesty and negatively affects the agents rate of collusion. Communication between agents decreases their honesty and their whistle blowing when the principal is perceived as unfair, but not when the principal is perceived as fair.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-05312006-144401 |
| Date | 11 July 2006 |
| Creators | Zhang, Yue |
| Contributors | Jacob Birnberg, Harry Evans, Vicky Hoffman, Donald Moser, Kristy Towry |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05312006-144401/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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