Paper #1540

Títol:

Collective commitment

Autors:

Christian Roessler, Sandro Shelegia i Bruno Strulovici

Data:

Juliol 2016

Resum:

We consider collective decisions made by agents whose preferences and power depend on past events and decisions. Faced with an inecient equilibrium and an opportunity to commit to a policy, can the agents reach an agreement on such a policy? We provide a consistency condition linking power structures in the dynamic setting and at the commitment stage. When the condition holds, commitment has no value: any agreement that may be reached at the outset coincides with the equilibrium without commitment. When the condition fails, as in the case of time-inconsistent preferences, commitment can improve outcomes. We discuss several applications.

Codis JEL:

D70, H41, C70

Àrea de Recerca:

Economia de l'Empresa i Organització Industrial

Publicat a:

Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming

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