ENDOGENOUS TIMING OF INCENTIVE CONTRACTS IN MIXED MARKETS UNDER BERTRAND COMPETITION

In this paper we analyze whether owners of firms prefer to decide on incentive contracts for their managers sequentially or simultaneously under Bertrand competition. It is shown that, in a private duopoly, if one firm is the leader in incentive contracts the other firm prefers to be the follower and thus in equilibrium firms' owners decide incentive contracts sequentially. However, in a mixed duopoly both the private and the public firm want to be the leader in incentive contracts and thus in equilibrium firms make decisions simultaneously.