An agent must verify that n objects are present. While counting, the agent might lose track and need to start over. The scheme that minimizes the expected counting time involves several layers in which objects are grouped into stacks, which are grouped into stacks of stacks, and so on. The size of each division depends only on the probability of making a mistake; the number of levels in the process increases with the logarithm of the size of the task. Variations on the model are introduced to investigate the optimal size of an organization employing presence of error-prone workers. Copyright 1992 by Royal Economic Society.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 102 (1992) Issue (Month): 410 (January) Pages: 1-8 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christopher F. Baum).
Related research
Keywords:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Flavio Toxvaerd, 2004.
"Time of the Essence,"
Discussion Paper Series
dp358, Center for Rationality and Interactive Decision Theory, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: