Improving the Organization of Knowledge in Production by Screening Problems

S-Tier
Journal: Journal of Political Economy
Year: 2024
Volume: 132
Issue: 4
Pages: 1290 - 1326

Authors (2)

Guilherme Carmona (University of Surrey) Krittanai Laohakunakorn (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

4.036 = (α=2.02 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We extend Garicano’s model of optimal organizations by allowing problems to be screened. We show that when screening is as costly as solving problems, optimal organizations are hierarchies as in Garicano’s model, but when the cost of screening is small, workers screen all problems that they and the top managers cannot solve, those problems that they screen are sent directly to those who can solve them, and those problems that they neither solve nor screen are passed to the top managers. For intermediate values of the screening cost, the optimal organization is a hybrid of the above forms.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/727285
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25