Arbeitspapier
Making it personal: Breach and private ordering in a contract farming experiment
Contracts may be subject to strategic default, particularly if public enforcement institutions are weak. In a lab experiment, we study behavior in a contract farming game without third-party enforcement but with an external spot market as outside option. Two players, farmer and company, may conclude a contract but also breach it by side-selling or arbitrary payment reductions. We examine if and how relational contracts and personal communication can support private-order enforcement. Moreover, we investigate whether company players offer price premiums to extend the contract's self-enforcing range. We find mixed evidence for our private ordering hypothesis. Although contract breach can be reduced by relational contracts, direct bargaining communication does not additionally improve the outcome. Price premiums are offered if other enforcement mechanisms are absent, but turn out to be only an 'allurement'. Most subjects are not willing to sacrifice short-term gains in favor of a well-functioning relationship that (as we show) would be beneficial for both contract parties in the long run.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: GlobalFood Discussion Papers ; No. 47
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation; Networks
Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
- Subject
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contract farming
private ordering
enforcement
contract breach
economic experiments
relational contracts
communication
price premiums
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Kunte, Sebastian
Wollni, Meike
Keser, Claudia
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Research Training Group (RTG) 1666 - GlobalFood
- (where)
-
Göttingen
- (when)
-
2014
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Kunte, Sebastian
- Wollni, Meike
- Keser, Claudia
- Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Research Training Group (RTG) 1666 - GlobalFood
Time of origin
- 2014
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