Radner (1993) proposed a model of decentralized associative computation as a means to understand information processing in organizations. In the model, in which an organization processes a single cohort of data, resources are measured by the number of managers. This paper (i) explains why...

This paper characterizes the efficient decentralized networks for calculating the associative aggregate of cohorts of data of a fixed size that arrive periodically. Radner (1993) proposed this problem of periodic parallel associative computation as a model of the ongoing information processing...

This paper defines and characterizes essential decentralized networks for calculating the associative aggregate of one or more cohorts of data. A network is essential if it is not possible to eliminate an instruction or manager and still calulate the aggregate of each cohort. We show that for...

The decentralized information processing approach pioneered by Radner and Van Zandt endogenously determines the optimal hierarchy for decision making within an organization. The simplest information processing model is the one-shot problem (one set of information to process) which serves as the...