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Budgeting and hierarchical control

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  • Mookherjee, D
  • Reichelstein, S

Abstract

This paper develops a model of budgeting in hierarchical organizations. Each agent (manager) in the hierarchy receives a budget for a task; based on his own information, the agent assigns tasks and budgets to his subordinates, who, in turn, do the same for their subordinates and so forth. Each department's performance is measured by the difference between budgeted and actual cost. In this setting we show that a particular budget mechanism is optimal in terms of the incentives it creates and the coordination it achieves.
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Suggested Citation

  • Mookherjee, D & Reichelstein, S, 1997. "Budgeting and hierarchical control," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 129-155.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:35:y:1997:i:2:p:129-155
    DOI: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/2491357
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Andreas Roider, 2006. "Delegation of Authority as an Optimal (In)Complete Contract," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 162(3), pages 391-411, September.
    3. Hans Peter Grüner, 2010. "Speed and Quality of Collective Decision Making: Incentives for Information Provision," Post-Print hal-00911831, HAL.
    4. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Martimort, David, 2001. "On some agency costs of intermediated contracting," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 75-82, April.
    5. Jonathan Treussard, 2005. "Life-Cycle Consumption Plans and Portfolio Policies in a Heath-Jarrow-Morton Economy," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2005-033, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    6. Baliga, Sandeep & Sjostrom, Tomas, 1998. "Decentralization and Collusion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 196-232, December.
    7. Aude Deville & Gary D. Ferrier & Hervé Leleu, 2009. "Performance measures for hierarchical organizations: Frontier analysis as a decision support tool," Working Papers 2009-ECO-01, IESEG School of Management.
    8. Madhav V. Rajan & Stefan Reichelstein, 2004. "ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE: A Perspective on ÜAsymmetric Information, Incentives and Intrafirm Resource AllocationÝ," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(12), pages 1615-1623, December.
    9. van Pelt, Victor, 2019. "A dynamic view of management accounting systems," Other publications TiSEM 782413b7-2830-4e6d-bc4c-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Hans Peter Grüner & Elisabeth Schulte, 2004. "Speed and Quality of Collective Decision Making: Incentives for," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000000417, UCLA Department of Economics.
    11. Grüner, Hans Peter & Schulte, Elisabeth, 2010. "Speed and quality of collective decision making: Incentives for information provision," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 734-747, December.
    12. Pinghan Liang, 2017. "Transfer of authority within hierarchies," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 21(4), pages 273-290, December.
    13. Grüner, Hans Peter, 2009. "Information technology: Efficient restructuring and the productivity puzzle," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 916-929, December.
    14. Andrey Malenko, 2011. "Optimal Design of Internal Capital Markets," 2011 Meeting Papers 442, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    15. Staci A. Kenno & Michelle C. Lau & Barbara J. Sainty, 2018. "In Search of a Theory of Budgeting: A Literature Review," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 507-553, December.
    16. Anil Arya & John Fellingham & Jonathan Glover & K. Sivaramakrishnan, 2000. "Capital Budgeting, the Hold-up Problem, and Information System Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 205-216, February.
    17. Grüner, Hans Peter, 2007. "Protocol Design and (De-)Centralization," CEPR Discussion Papers 6357, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Ulf Schiller, 2001. "Vom Nutzen (un-)informierter Agenten: Eine informationsökonomische Betrachtung des Controllings," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 3-19, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internal control; Budgeting; Hierarchical organization; Managerial accounting system;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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