A company hires a salesperson on a fixed salary to promote a new product. The salesperson's daily activities, such as the number of client visits or the quality of their sales pitch, are difficult for the manager to observe directly. Which of the following best describes the core problem of 'hidden action' in this context?

In an economic model involving a farmer and a landowner, the efficient level of the farmer's labor produces a total of 10 bushels of grain. The set of all efficient allocations is represented by a vertical line on a graph, indicating that the farmer's hours of work are constant for all these allocations. If an initial efficient allocation gives the landowner 2 bushels and the farmer 8 bushels, what is the direct consequence of changing the allocation so the landowner now receives 5 bushels?

Mechanic's Effort and Customer's Bill

Evaluating CEO Compensation Structures

Public Infrastructure Project

A company invests in research that leads to a new, more efficient manufacturing process, which it patents. The company benefits directly from lower production costs. This research also inspires other firms in the industry to develop their own unrelated innovations. Considering the effect of one additional dollar spent on this research, how does the benefit experienced by the company compare to the benefit experienced by society as a whole?

A landlord rents an apartment to a tenant under a one-year lease that includes a security deposit. The landlord is concerned that the tenant might not take good care of the property (e.g., cleaning regularly, reporting minor leaks promptly). In this situation, the 'hidden action' problem refers to the landlord's inability to know the tenant's true financial stability before signing the lease.

Match each economic scenario with the type of information problem it best represents. Note that some problem types may be used more than once.

Bridge Construction Contract

A tech startup hires a freelance programmer to develop a new mobile application. The startup cannot easily monitor the programmer's daily effort or the quality of the code being written. The startup is concerned that the programmer might not exert full effort, leading to a delayed or low-quality product. Which of the following contractual arrangements would be least effective at mitigating this problem?