A successful marriage requires for both parties to make investments in their relationship and marital assets. How such assets would be divided if and when the parties divorce is an important factor determining each party’s (exante) investment incentives. Using the “incomplete contracting” approach, we characterize the optimal asset division rule, one that provides the parties with the best inve...

We consider a manufacturer selling to a retailer with private demand forecast information arising dynamically over an infinite time horizon. We show that the manufacturer’s optimal dynamic long-term contract takes a simple form: in the first period, based on her private demand forecast, the retailer selects a wholesale price and pays an associated upfront fee, and, from then on, the two parties...

Many real-life contract agreements actually involve negotiations in which both parties have some bargaining power. However, standard contract theory assumes that the principal holds all of the bargaining power. The literature has typically modeled that with a one-shot game in which the principal makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to the agent. Then, the agent is only able to accept or reject the...

In private international law of contract, the regulating rights and obligations contracting parties may (whether objectively determined or chosen by parties), in some instances, be limited either public policy considerations other relevant mandatory rules. this regard, overriding rules three places – that forum state, applicable (if different from lex fori) place performance (or a third state w...

Thinking about contingencies, designing covenants and seeing through their implications is costly. Parties to a contract accordingly use heuristics and leave it incomplete. The paper develops a model of bounded rationality and examines its consequences for contractual design. It is argued that cognition is a natural source of adverse selection in contractual relationships, that contracts may be...