We examine a principal-agent model with moral hazard in which the technology – the vector of probability distributions … from the agent’s actions to the possible outcomes – is initially unknown. A signal correlated with the technology is … information) or informative and observed only by the principal (private information) or observed by both the principal and agent …

. We show that when the principal has or will acquire private information about her technology, (i) with ex post …In a principal-agent environment with moral hazard and symmetric information, having or acquiring a more informative … technology lowers the cost to implement a given action. Contracting may occur after or before the principal learns her technology …

but can offer only menus of direct mechanisms, to which they report their information truthfully. …