Episode 82: Wouter Dessein on how Organisations Allocate Decision-Making Power

Wouter Dessein is an Eli Ginzberg Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School

The paper discussed in this episode is “Coordination and Organization Design: Theory and Micro-Evidence” by Wouter Dessein, Desmond Lo, and Chieko Minami.

Papers mentioned in this episode include:

Aghion, P., & Tirole, J. (1997). Formal and real authority in organizations. Journal of political economy, 105(1), 1-29.

Alonso, R., Dessein, W., & Matouschek, N. (2008). When does coordination require centralization?. American Economic Review, 98(1), 145-179.

Bloom, N., Sadun, R., & Van Reenen, J. (2012). The organization of firms across countries. The quarterly journal of economics, 127(4), 1663-1705.

Dessein, W., Garicano, L., & Gertner, R. (2010). Organizing for synergies. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2(4), 77-114.

Dessein, W., & Santos, T. (2006). Adaptive organizations. Journal of political Economy, 114(5), 956-995.

Garicano, L., & Rayo, L. (2016). Why organizations fail: Models and cases. Journal of Economic Literature, 54(1), 137-192.