The Theory of Contracts
E680269
The Theory of Contracts is a foundational work in contract theory and economics that analyzes how optimal contracts can be designed under conditions of asymmetric information and incentive problems.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Theory of Contracts canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7651539 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Theory of Contracts Context triple: [Bengt Holmström, notableWork, The Theory of Contracts]
-
A.
A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts
A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts is a pioneering casebook on contract law by Christopher Columbus Langdell that helped establish the case method of legal education in American law schools.
-
B.
Restatement (Second) of Contracts
Restatement (Second) of Contracts is a highly influential legal treatise that systematically summarizes and clarifies U.S. contract law principles for courts, practitioners, and scholars.
-
C.
The Essentials from the Science of Legal Theory
The Essentials from the Science of Legal Theory is an English rendering of al-Ghazali’s seminal work in Islamic legal theory, presenting the foundational principles and methods of deriving Islamic law.
-
D.
"The Nature of the Firm"
"The Nature of the Firm" is a foundational 1937 economic essay by Ronald Coase that explains why firms exist and how transaction costs shape their size and structure.
-
E.
Law of the Maximum
The Law of the Maximum was a French Revolutionary price-control measure that fixed maximum prices on essential goods to curb inflation and protect the urban poor.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Theory of Contracts Target entity description: The Theory of Contracts is a foundational work in contract theory and economics that analyzes how optimal contracts can be designed under conditions of asymmetric information and incentive problems.
-
A.
A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts
A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts is a pioneering casebook on contract law by Christopher Columbus Langdell that helped establish the case method of legal education in American law schools.
-
B.
Restatement (Second) of Contracts
Restatement (Second) of Contracts is a highly influential legal treatise that systematically summarizes and clarifies U.S. contract law principles for courts, practitioners, and scholars.
-
C.
The Essentials from the Science of Legal Theory
The Essentials from the Science of Legal Theory is an English rendering of al-Ghazali’s seminal work in Islamic legal theory, presenting the foundational principles and methods of deriving Islamic law.
-
D.
"The Nature of the Firm"
"The Nature of the Firm" is a foundational 1937 economic essay by Ronald Coase that explains why firms exist and how transaction costs shape their size and structure.
-
E.
Law of the Maximum
The Law of the Maximum was a French Revolutionary price-control measure that fixed maximum prices on essential goods to curb inflation and protect the urban poor.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic paper
ⓘ
work in contract theory ⓘ work in economics ⓘ |
| addresses |
commitment issues in contracts
ⓘ
hidden action problems ⓘ hidden information problems ⓘ renegotiation and enforcement issues in contracts ⓘ |
| analyzes |
how to design optimal contracts under asymmetric information
ⓘ
incentive compatibility constraints ⓘ participation constraints ⓘ risk sharing in contracts ⓘ screening mechanisms ⓘ signaling in contractual relationships ⓘ trade‑offs between risk and incentives ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
financial contracts
ⓘ
industrial organization ⓘ insurance contracts ⓘ labor contracts ⓘ regulation and public policy design ⓘ |
| contributesTo |
information economics literature
ⓘ
modern contract theory ⓘ theory of incentives ⓘ |
| field |
contract theory
ⓘ
information economics ⓘ microeconomics ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
design of contracts under private information
ⓘ
implementation of socially desirable outcomes via contracts ⓘ optimal allocation of risk and effort ⓘ relationships between principals and agents ⓘ |
| goal |
to align incentives between contracting parties
ⓘ
to characterize optimal contracts under asymmetric information ⓘ to mitigate inefficiencies caused by private information ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
adverse selection
ⓘ
asymmetric information ⓘ incentive problems ⓘ incomplete contracts ⓘ mechanism design ⓘ moral hazard ⓘ optimal contract design ⓘ principal–agent problems ⓘ |
| usesConcept |
Pareto efficiency
ⓘ
adverse selection models ⓘ incentive compatibility ⓘ information rents ⓘ moral hazard models ⓘ participation constraints ⓘ screening ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Theory of Contracts Description of subject: The Theory of Contracts is a foundational work in contract theory and economics that analyzes how optimal contracts can be designed under conditions of asymmetric information and incentive problems.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Bengt Holmström (studies, later MIT)