Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized versus Hierarchical Firms
比较分散型小企业与大型层级企业在投资项目信息生成和资本配置上的效率差异，发现软信息适合分散型，硬信息适合层级型，并用于解释银行业合并后小企业贷款减少的现象。
ABSTRACT This paper asks how well different organizational structures perform in terms of generating information about investment projects and allocating capital to these projects. A decentralized approach‐with small, single‐manager firms‐is most likely to be attractive when information about projects is “soft” and cannot be credibly transmitted. In contrast, large hierarchies perform better when information can be costlessly “hardened” and passed along inside the firm. The model can be used to think about the consequences of consolidation in the banking industry, particularly the documented tendency for mergers to lead to declines in small‐business lending.