This paper studies the optimal choice of cost standards (or cost targets) over time in an agency setting in which a worker is responsible for both implementing actions and acquiring skill/expertise that would enable him to improve his future performance with respect to those actions. We...

Markets have a remarkable capacity for producing efficient resource allocations when information about relative values is dispersed across economic agents. We explore the use of market mechanisms inside the firm to address a resource allocation problem, and compare the outcome with the first-...

Traditional standard cost variance analysis procedures are examined as motivational devices in a principal-agent model. The reexpressing of a cost realization into components (such as individual factor price and quantity variances) is shown to be useful if an incentive problem exists and if the...