The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development
提出一种生产函数，描述多任务中可能出错的过程，证明高技能工人会在均衡中相互匹配，技能提升会带来工资和产出的急剧增长，模型解释了国家间收入差异、贫困国家小企业主导以及企业内部不同职业工人工资正相关等现象。
This paper proposes a production function describing processes subject to mistakes in any of several tasks. It shows that high-skill workers—those who make few mistakes—will be matched together in equilibrium, and that wages and output will rise steeply in skill. The model is consistent with large income differences between countries, the predominance of small firms in poor countries, and the positive correlation between the wages of workers in different occupations within enterprises. Imperfect observability of skill leads to imperfect matching and thus to spillovers, strategic complementarity, and multiple equilibria in education.