What is the principal-agent problem? What are three ways in which firms try to cope with it?
What will be an ideal response?
The principal-agent problem is the problem of devising compensation rules that induce an agent to act in the best interests of a principal. There are three ways of coping with this problem: Ownership, often offered to managers, gives the agents an incentive to maximize the firm's profits, which is the goal of the owners, the principals; incentive pay links managers' or workers' pay to the firm's performance and helps align the managers' and workers' interests with those of the owners, the principal; long-term contracts tie managers' or workers' long-term rewards to the long-term performance of the firm, encouraging the agents to work in the best long-term interests of the firm owners, the principals.
You might also like to view...
To enforce the optimum level of emissions, a government could set an emissions fee, which would be
A) the dollar value indicated by the intersection of the MSB and MCA curves, and would apply to every unit of pollutants the firm emitted. B) the dollar value indicated by the intersection of the MSB and MCA curves, and would apply to every unit of pollutants the firm emitted above the standard. C) the vertical intercept of the MSB curve. D) the vertical intercept of the MCA curve. E) the vertical distance between the intercepts of the MSB curve and the MCA curve.
Public transit offers discounted monthly passes to students, which can only be bought and used with valid student IDs. The transit system is using
a. A direct discrimination scheme b. An indirect discrimination scheme c. The Robinson-Patman act d. None of the above