The purpose of this paper is to study capital budgeting in a setting where emphasis is on control over project selection. We construct a model of a multidivisional firm in which there are no constraints on investment and all projects have a positive net present value. Nevertheless, we show that it is optimal for the center to use relative project ranking in determining which projects are to be funded.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AmershiA.ChengP.. 1988. “Implementable Equilibria in Accounting Contexts: An Exploratory Study”. Contemporary Accounting Research (Spring): 515–563.
2.
AntleR.1982. “The Auditor as an Economic Agent”. Journal of Accounting Research, 20 (Autumn): 503–527.
3.
AntleR.EppenG.. 1985. “Capital Rationing and Organizational Slack in Capital Budgeting”. Management Science, 31 (February): 163–174.
4.
AntleR.FellinghamJ.. 1990. “Resource Rationing and Organizational Slack in a Two-Period Model”. Journal of Accounting Research, 28 (Spring): 1–24.
5.
AryaA.GloverJ.. 1995. “A Simple Forecasting Mechanism for Moral Hazard Settings”. Journal of Economic Theory, 66 (August): 507–521.
6.
BalakrishnanR.1995. “Rationing Resources among Multiple Divisions”. Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance, 10 (Spring): 263–290.
7.
CremerJ.McLeanR.. 1988. “Full Extraction of the Surplus in Bayesian and Dominant Strategy Auctions”. Econometrica, 56: 1247–1257.
8.
DavidsonS.MaherM.StickneyC.WeilR.. 1985. Managerial Accounting. New York: Dryden Press.
9.
DemskiJ.SappingtonD.. 1984. “Optimal Incentive Contracts with Multiple Agents”. Journal of Economic Theory, 33: 152–171.
10.
DemskiJ.SappingtonD.SpillerP.. 1988. “Incentive Schemes with Multiple Agents and Bankruptcy Constraints”. Journal of Economic Theory, 44: 156–167.
11.
DixitA.PindyckR.. 1994. Investment under Uncertainty. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
12.
FellinghamJ.YoungR.. 1990. “The Value of Self-Reported Costs in Repeated Investment Decisions”. The Accounting Review, 65 (October): 837–856.
13.
FudenbergD.TiroleJ.. 1991. Game Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press.
14.
HiltonR.1991. Managerial Accounting. New York: McGraw-Hill.