The Return to Knowledge Hierarchies

Luis Garicano, T. Hubbard
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引用次数: 49

Abstract

Hierarchies allow individuals to leverage their knowledge through others' time. This mechanism increases productivity and amplifies the impact of skill heterogeneity on earnings inequality. To quantify this effect, we analyze the earnings and organization of U.S. lawyers and use the equilibrium model of knowledge hierarchies in Garicano and Rossi-Hansberg (2006) to assess how much lawyers' productivity and the distribution of earnings across lawyers reflects lawyers' ability to organize problem-solving hierarchically. We analyze earnings, organizational, and assignment patterns and show that they are generally consistent with the main predictions of the model. We then use these data to estimate the model. Our estimates imply that hierarchical production leads to at least a 30% increase in production in this industry, relative to a situation where lawyers within the same office do not "vertically specialize." We further find that it amplifies earnings inequality, increasing the ratio between the 95th and 50th percentiles from 3.7 to 4.8. We conclude that the impact of hierarchy on productivity and earnings distributions in this industry is substantial but not dramatic, reflecting the fact that the problems lawyers face are diverse and that the solutions tend to be customized.
回归知识层次
等级制度允许个人通过他人的时间来利用自己的知识。这种机制提高了生产率,放大了技能异质性对收入不平等的影响。为了量化这种影响,我们分析了美国律师的收入和组织,并使用Garicano和Rossi-Hansberg(2006)的知识层次均衡模型来评估律师的生产力和收入在律师之间的分配在多大程度上反映了律师分层组织解决问题的能力。我们分析了收益、组织和分配模式,并表明它们大体上与模型的主要预测一致。然后我们使用这些数据来估计模型。我们的估计表明,相对于同一办公室的律师不“垂直专业化”的情况,分层生产导致该行业的产量至少增加了30%。我们进一步发现,它放大了收入不平等,将第95和第50百分位之间的比率从3.7提高到4.8。我们的结论是,等级制度对该行业的生产率和收入分配的影响是实质性的,但不是戏剧性的,这反映了律师面临的问题是多样化的,解决方案往往是定制的。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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