Renegotiation design with multiple regulators

One striking feature of the internal organization of governments is the existence of multiple regulators. This paper explains this organizational choice as coming from the government's limited ability to commit. The separation of powers between two regulators is modeled as a Stackelberg common agency game. With respect to the case of a single regulator, the allocative efficiency and the regulated firm's informational rent are both reduced in the unique equilibrium of this game. However, when regulators have a limited ability to commit, this static cost of regulators separation becomes a dynamic benefit. Separation makes renegotiation harder and improves commitment. (C) 1999 Academic Press.