Incentivizing Knowledge Transfers

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kuang, Zhonghong, Liu, Yi, Wei, Dong
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866915709324361728
author Kuang, Zhonghong
Liu, Yi
Wei, Dong
author_facet Kuang, Zhonghong
Liu, Yi
Wei, Dong
contents We study the optimal design of relational contracts that incentivize an expert to share specialized knowledge with a novice. While the expert fears that a more knowledgeable novice may later erode his future rents, a third-party principal is willing to allocate her resources to facilitate knowledge transfer. In the unique profit-maximizing contract between the principal and the expert, the expert is asked to train the novice as much as possible, for free, in the initial period; knowledge transfers then proceed gradually and perpetually, while the principal offers lump-sum compensations to the expert right after verifying each transfer; even in the long run, a complete knowledge transfer might not be attainable. Our analysis sheds light on the success of several prominent cross-border technology transfers that took place in China's auto industry and Korea's high-speed rail development.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11018
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Incentivizing Knowledge Transfers
Kuang, Zhonghong
Liu, Yi
Wei, Dong
Theoretical Economics
We study the optimal design of relational contracts that incentivize an expert to share specialized knowledge with a novice. While the expert fears that a more knowledgeable novice may later erode his future rents, a third-party principal is willing to allocate her resources to facilitate knowledge transfer. In the unique profit-maximizing contract between the principal and the expert, the expert is asked to train the novice as much as possible, for free, in the initial period; knowledge transfers then proceed gradually and perpetually, while the principal offers lump-sum compensations to the expert right after verifying each transfer; even in the long run, a complete knowledge transfer might not be attainable. Our analysis sheds light on the success of several prominent cross-border technology transfers that took place in China's auto industry and Korea's high-speed rail development.
title Incentivizing Knowledge Transfers
topic Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11018