TY - JOUR
T1 - Accept or Reject? An Organizational Perspective
AU - Garfagnini, Umberto
AU - Ottaviani, Marco
AU - Sørensen, Peter Norman
N1 - JEL classification: D82, D83
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - This paper compares the relative performance of different organizational structures for the decision of accepting or rejecting a project of uncertain quality. When the principal is uninformed and relies on the advice of an informed and biased agent, cheap-talk communication is persuasive and it is equivalent to delegation of authority, provided that the agent's bias is small. When the principal has access to additional private information, cheap-talk communication dominates both (conditional) delegation and more democratic organizational arrangements such as voting with unanimous consensus.
AB - This paper compares the relative performance of different organizational structures for the decision of accepting or rejecting a project of uncertain quality. When the principal is uninformed and relies on the advice of an informed and biased agent, cheap-talk communication is persuasive and it is equivalent to delegation of authority, provided that the agent's bias is small. When the principal has access to additional private information, cheap-talk communication dominates both (conditional) delegation and more democratic organizational arrangements such as voting with unanimous consensus.
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2014.03.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2014.03.004
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0167-7187
VL - 34
SP - 66
EP - 74
JO - International Journal of Industrial Organization
JF - International Journal of Industrial Organization
ER -