Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
We consider how parties’ formal contracts are underpinned by their ongoing relationship and how welfare changes as the legal system improves. Regardless of impatience, the parties write formal contracts that they would not honor–despite stipulated penalties–if they interacted only once. The change in welfare with an improvement in the legal system can be ambiguous and even non-monotonic.