The Comparative Statics of Optimal Hierarchies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Cheng; Suen, Wing
• 署名单位: Clemson University; University of Hong Kong; University of Hong Kong
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20170158
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1-25
• 关键词: firm; ORGANIZATION

摘要

Several classes of models of hierarchical organizations share two common properties: the characteristics at different levels of the hierarchy are complementary, but this complementarity does not extend beyond adjacent levels. We propose a unified yet simple approach to study comparative statics of organizational characteristics with endogenous number of hierarchical layers in all these models. We use this new approach to study organizational decision making, and show that increased delay cost incentivizes the organization to empower lower level employees more than upper level employees.