Does Asset Ownership Always Motivate Managers? Outside Options and the Property Rights Theory of the Firm

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 1998
Volume: 113
Issue: 2
Pages: 361-386

Authors (2)

David de Meza (not in RePEc) Ben Lockwood (University of Warwick)

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper studies the Grossman-Hart-Moore (GHM) "property rights" approach to the theory of the firm under alternating-offers bargaining. When managers can pursue other occupations while negotiating over the division of the gains from cooperation, the GHM results obtain. If taking the best alternative job terminates bargaining, outcomes are very different. Sometimes an agent with an important investment decision should not own the assets he works with; sometimes independent assets should be owned together; sometimes strictly complementary assets should be owned separately.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:113:y:1998:i:2:p:361-386.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25