Expectation Damages, Divisible Contracts, and Bilateral Investment

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2009
Volume: 99
Issue: 4
Pages: 1608-18

Authors (1)

Susanne Ohlendorf (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

8.043 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

This paper examines the efficiency of expectation damages as a breach remedy in a bilateral trade setting with renegotiation and relationship-specific investment by the buyer and the seller. As demonstrated by Edlin and Reichelstein (1996), no contract that specifies only a fixed quantity and a fixed per-unit price can induce efficient investment if marginal cost is constant and deterministic. We show that this result does not extend to more general payoff functions. If both parties face the risk of breaching, the first best becomes attainable with a simple price-quantity contract. (JEL D86, K12)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:99:y:2009:i:4:p:1608-18
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-25