Leading for the Long-Term

20 Pages Posted: 26 Dec 1998

Date Written: December 1998

Abstract

This paper builds on the model of leadership set forth by Hermalin ("Toward an Economic Theory of Leadership: Leading by Example," American Economic Review, forthcoming). A criticism of that earlier work is that it considers leadership in a static setting only. Yet an important phenomenon of leadership is its persistence. One aspect of leadership, for instance, that is unexplorable in a static setting is reputation: The leader develops a reputation for leading her followers well. To allow for reputation effects and other behaviors that make sense only in repeated games--such as followers paying their leader tribute--this paper considers a repeated-game version of Hermalin's earlier model.

JEL Classification: D29, D82, L29

Suggested Citation

Hermalin, Benjamin E., Leading for the Long-Term (December 1998). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=142793 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.142793

Benjamin E. Hermalin (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

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