Contracting Costs, Inflation, and Relative Price Variability
分析相对价格不确定性和价格水平不确定性对契约成本的影响，发现不确定性增加时，依赖声誉的长期契约减少，而通过债券担保的契约更有利。
This paper provides an analysis of the effect of relative price uncertainty and price level uncertainty on contracting costs. The paper shows that, as relative price uncertainty or price level uncertainty increase, contracts where performance is assured through the posting of a bond become more advantageous than contracts that rely on reputation. Increases in relative price and price level uncertainty make contracting more expensive by increasing the payoff from defaulting on long-term contracts when unfavorable realizations occur. As uncertainty increases, long-term contracting becomes less frequent and reputation plays a smaller role in contracting. Copyright 1993 by Ohio State University Press.