Management Quality, Firm Organization and International Trade

Cheng Chen

No 53, 2015 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: The quality of management technology that is used to monitor and incentivize workers varies substantially across countries. To understand the impact of this on economic activities, I develop a two-sector model in which firms facing heterogeneous demands set up hierarchies to manage the production processes in a monopolistically competitive sector. Entrepreneurs decide the number of hierarchical layers, the effort level of each worker, and the span of control of supervisors. I then use the theory to explain two empirical findings established in the literature. First, a common improvement in this type of management technology across all firms intensifies competition in the monopolistically competitive sector. As a result, the smallest firms are forced to leave the market; the most efficient firms thrive; the average firm size increases. Second, firms are less decentralized in economies with ineffective management technology. In an extended two-country model incorporating international trade, I show that firms facing increasing import competition flatten their hierarchies and use more incentive-based pay. Furthermore, I find that countries with superior management technology experience larger welfare gains from opening up to trade and have larger trade shares.

Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-cse
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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