January 2023

IZA DP No. 15881: Implicit Contracts, Incentive Compatibility, and Involuntary Unemployment: Thirty Years On

"Implicit Contracts, incentive compatibility, and involuntary unemployment" (MacLeod and Malcomson, 1989) remains our most highly cited work. We briefly review the development of this paper and of our subsequent related work, and conclude with reflections on the future of relational contract theory and practice.