Publications

2016
Working Paper

Refugee Resettlement

By: David Delacretaz, Scott Duke Kominers and Alexander Teytelboym

Over 100,000 refugees are permanently resettled from refugee camps to hosting countries every year. Nevertheless, refugee resettlement processes in most countries are ad hoc, accounting for neither the priorities of hosting communities nor the preferences of refugees... View Details

Keywords: Refugees; Marketplace Matching; Mathematical Methods

October 2012 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Predilytics

By: Robert F. Higgins and Annelena Lobb

The management team at Predilytics, a healthcare analytics firm, must decide whether to accept a Series A venture capital financing deal. The company provided analytic services to healthcare plans, typically Medicare Advantage plans, in efforts to draw conclusions from... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Healthcare; Medicare; Health Care and Treatment; Mathematical Methods; Health Industry; New England; United States

2008
Chapter

Moving to a New Global Competitiveness Index

By: Michael E. Porter, Mercedes Delgado-Garcia, Christian H.M. Ketels and Scott Stern

Keywords: Globalization; Competitive Advantage; Mathematical Methods

August 2006
Article

Confidence Intervals for Probabilities of Default

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Til Schuermann

In this paper we conduct a systematic comparison of confidence intervals around estimated probabilities of default (PD) using several analytical approaches as well as parametric and nonparametric bootstrap methods. We do so for two different PD estimation... View Details

Keywords: Credit Risk; Bootstrap; Mathematical Methods; Credit; Risk Management

December 1981 (Revised September 1986)
Background Note

Research Methods in Marketing: Survey Research

By: Robert J. Dolan

Presents basic issues in survey research, covering both measurement and sampling error. The intention is to consider each element of the survey process: problem statement, questionnaire design, sampling, and data analysis. View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Surveys; Marketing

06 Apr 2020
Working Paper Summaries

A General Theory of Identification

Keywords: by Iavor Bojinov and Guillaume Basse

2006
Book

Service Productivity Management: Improving Service Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis

By: H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu

Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance—Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates specific... View Details

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis; Economics; Operations; Mathematical Methods

1991
Chapter

An Economic Approach to the Study of Bargaining

By: A. E. Roth

Keywords: Negotiation; Economics; Mathematical Methods

July 1982 (Revised March 1984)
Background Note

Why Preference Curves are Useful for Risky Decisions

By: David E. Bell

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Decision Making

2010
Working Paper

Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans

By: Doug J. Chung, Thomas J. Steenburgh and K. Sudhir

We estimate a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus based compensation plan. The paper has two main methodological innovations: First, we implement empirically the method proposed by Arcidiacono and Miller (2010) to accommodate unobserved latent... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Performance Productivity; Mathematical Methods; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

2010
Working Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman

We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Vertical Integration; Business and Government Relations; Boundaries; Ownership; Mathematical Methods

November 2006
Case

Introducing Frequent Flyer Programs

By: Dennis A. Yao

Allows students to explore the value to American Airlines of introducing a frequent flyer program in 1981. View Details

Keywords: Value; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Mathematical Methods; Game Theory; Competitive Advantage; Programs; Customers; Air Transportation Industry

September 2018
Article

Aggregation of Consumer Ratings: An Application to Yelp.com

By: Weijia Dai, Ginger Jin, Jungmin Lee and Michael Luca

Because consumer reviews leverage the wisdom of the crowd, the way in which they are aggregated is a central decision faced by platforms. We explore this "rating aggregation problem" and offer a structural approach to solving it, allowing for (1) reviewers to vary in... View Details

Keywords: User Generated Content; Crowdsourcing; Yelp; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information; Internet and the Web; Learning; Mathematical Methods; E-commerce

January 2008
Background Note

Index Options

By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford

The goal of this simulation is to understand the patterns in index option prices that are not predicted by the Black-Scholes model. In particular, the simulation focuses on two properties of options prices. First, at-the-money implied volatilities from index options... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Stock Options; Investment; Price; Profit; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods

January 2002 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., 2001

By: Joshua Musher and Andre F. Perold

Asset manager GMO underperforms the market during the 1996-2000 stock market bubble because of the focus on absolute risk. After suffering significant client withdrawals, performance again shines when the bubble collapses. Did they win the battle only to lose the war?... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Asset Management; Stocks; Investment; Price Bubble; Mathematical Methods; Risk and Uncertainty

October 1993 (Revised August 1996)
Background Note

Forecasting with Regression Analysis

By: Arthur Schleifer Jr.

Provides an example of regression in one of its most important roles. Relating probabilistic forecasts based on past data to decision analysis. View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Analytics and Data Science; Forecasting and Prediction; Mathematical Methods

22 Oct 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Estimating Causal Effects in the Presence of Partial Interference Using Multivariate Bayesian Structural Time Series Models

Keywords: by Fiammetta Menchetti and Iavor Bojinov

January 1982 (Revised December 1997)
Background Note

Note on the New Deal: From the First to the Second ""Hundred Days""

A brief summary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies between 1933 and 1935. Contains three statistical tables that supplement Selected U.S. Statistics: Part I and Selected U.S. Statistics: Part II. View Details

Keywords: History; Mathematical Methods; Policy; Public Administration Industry; United States

2018
Working Paper

Diagnostic Bubbles

By: Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Spencer Yongwook Kwon and Andrei Shleifer

We introduce diagnostic expectations into a standard setting of price formation in which investors learn about the fundamental value of an asset and trade it. We study the interaction of diagnostic expectations with two well-known mechanisms: learning from prices and... View Details

Keywords: Bubbles; Price Bubble; Mathematical Methods