Organizing Modular Production
研究了模块化生产如何影响企业的沟通结构，发现最优沟通网络遵循简单的阈值规则，并讨论了比较静态分析和实证含义。
Products are increasingly made by assembling separately produced modules. Motivated by the notion that a firm’s production function drives its organization, we explore how modular production shapes a firm’s communication structure. Decisions are partitioned into modules and require closer coordination within modules than across. Each agent knows the state his decision must be adapted to. The principal decides whom each agent tells about his state, given that each communication link comes at a cost. We show that optimal communication networks follow a simple threshold rule and exhibit the threshold property. We discuss comparative statics, applications, and empirical implications.