Reply to: dynamic incentives and responsibility accounting: a comment

Abstract

Christensen et al. (Dynamic incentives and responsibility accounting: a comment, J. Account. Econ. 35 (2003) 423) examine Indjejikian and Nanda (J. Account. Econ. 27 (1999) 177) and suggest that our characterization of the inefficiency arising from limited commitment as a “ratchet effect” phenomenon is misplaced. In this reply, we describe the ratchet effect as commonly understood in the literature, clarify the role of contractual commitments in our analysis, and then illustrate why both the substance and interpretation of our original results continue to be appropriate.