Arbeitspapier

Contract compliance under biased expectations: Evidence from an experiment in Ghana

Contract compliance is key for economic growth. However, determinants affecting contract breach are not yet well understood. In this paper, we focus on contract situations with a potential hold-up problem, such as contract farming agreements which are prevalent in many developing countries. We examine if agents' payoff expectations serve as a reference point affecting (non-)compliant behavior by inducing a subjective loss when the agent compares the realized payoff and the expected payoff from the contract. Results from our lab experiment in Ghana indicate that overconfident agents, i.e., agents with relatively high payoff expectations, breach more often than underconfident agents, i.e., agents with relatively low payoff expectations. Moreover, more pronounced individual loss aversion amplifies the effect of subjective losses on contract breach. In a treatment, we manipulate agent's overestimation exogenously and use it as an instrument to demonstrate that the reported effects are causal.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: GlobalFood Discussion Papers ; No. 140

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual
Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Expectations; Speculations
Labor Contracts
Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
Thema
contract compliance
overconfidence
reference-dependent preferences

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Fischer, Sabine
Grosch, Kerstin
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Research Training Group (RTG) 1666 - GlobalFood
(wo)
Göttingen
(wann)
2020

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Fischer, Sabine
  • Grosch, Kerstin
  • Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Research Training Group (RTG) 1666 - GlobalFood

Entstanden

  • 2020

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