Previous evidence suggests that less liquid stocks entail higher average returns. Using NYSE data, we present evidence that both the sensitivity of returns to liquidity and liquidity premia have significantly declined over the past four decades to levels that we cannot statistically distinguish...

We study the moral hazard problem with general upper and lower constraints M on compensation. We characterize the optimal contract and show existence and uniqueness. When minimizing costs for given effort, a principal harmed by M will pay according to M on some range of outcomes; when M reflects...

We provide general conditions under which principal-agent problems admit mechanisms that are optimal for the principal. Our result covers as special cases those in which the agent has no private information –i.e., pure moral hazard –as well as those in which the agent’s only action...