Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185712 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 42
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, München und Berlin
Abstract: 
We show that team formation can serve as an implicit commitment device to overcome problems of self-control. If individuals have present-biased preferences, effort that is costly today but rewarded at some later point in time is too low from the perspective of an individual\'s long-run self. If agents interact repeatedly and can monitor each other, a relational contract involving teamwork can help to improve performance. The mutual promise to work harder is credible because the team breaks up after an agent has not kept this promise - which leads to individual underproduction in the future and hence a reduction of future utility.
Subjects: 
self-control problems
teamwork
relational contracts
JEL: 
L22
L23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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