Numbers - Publications - Faculty & Research

Research Summary

Political Economy and Effects of Gun Policy

In two projects with Mike Luca and Deepak Malhotra, I examine the causes and consequences of gun policy.

The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy

There have been dozens of high-profile mass shootings in... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Firearms; Political Economy; United States

Article

Four Things No One Will Tell You About ESG Data

By: Sakis Kotsantonis and George Serafeim

As the ESG finance field and the use of ESG data in investment decision-making continue to grow, the authors seek to shed light on several important aspects of ESG measurement and data. This article is intended to provide a useful guide for the rapidly rising number of... View Details

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August 2019 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Family Matters: Governance at the Zamil Group

By: Christina R. Wing, Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

This case focuses on a large Saudi Arabian industrial conglomerate and family business Zamil Group’s corporate and family governance journey. The 12 sons of the founder led and grew the group successfully after taking over from their father in 1961. The secret to their... View Details

Keywords: Middle East; Family Ownership; Family-owned Business; Saudi Arabia; Family Business; Governance; Organizational Structure; Values and Beliefs; Steel Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain

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2017
Working Paper

Biased Beliefs About Random Samples: Evidence from Two Integrated Experiments

By: Daniel J. Benjamin, Don A. Moore and Matthew Rabin

This paper describes results of a pair of incentivized experiments on biases in judgments about random samples. Consistent with the Law of Small Numbers (LSN), participants exaggerated the likelihood that short sequences and random subsets of coin flips would be... View Details

Keywords: Probability; Economic Theory; Analysis; Incentives

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July 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Affinity Labs, Inc.

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology

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Phased releases are a common strategy in the technology industry for gradually releasing new products or updates through a sequence of A/B tests in which the number of treated units gradually grows until full deployment or deprecation. Performing phased releases... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Is Hybrid Work the Best of Both Worlds? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Christos A. Makridis and Kyle Schirmann

This paper reports causal evidence on how the extent of hybrid work—the number of days worked from home relative to days worked from office—affects employee attitudes and performance. Workers who spent around two days in the office each week on average self-reported... View Details

Keywords: Attitudes; Performance Consistency; Employees; Work-Life Balance

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February 2005
Article

Financial Analyst Characteristics and Herding Behavior in Forecasting

By: Michael B. Clement and Senyo Tse

This study classifies analysts' earnings forecasts as herding or bold and finds that (1) boldness likelihood increases with the analyst's prior accuracy, brokerage size, and experience and declines with the number of industries the analyst follows, consistent with... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Forecasting and Prediction; Performance Evaluation; Financial Services Industry

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Article

Does the Scope of the Sell-Side Analyst Industry Matter? An Examination of Bias, Accuracy, and Information Content of Analyst Reports

By: Kenneth Merkley, Roni Michaely and Joseph Pacelli

We examine changes in the scope of the sell-side analyst industry and whether these changes impact information dissemination and the quality of analysts’ reports. Our findings suggest that changes in the number of analysts covering an industry impact analyst... View Details

Keywords: Analyst Industry; Sell-side Analysts; Analyst Reports; Finance; Analysis; Information; Reports; Quality; Financial Services Industry

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August 2017
Article

Is the SEC Captured? Evidence from Comment-Letter Reviews

By: Jonas Heese, Mozaffar Khan and Karthik Ramanna

SEC oversight of publicly listed firms ranges from comment letter (CL) reviews of firms’ reporting compliance to pursuing enforcement actions against violators. Prior literature finds that firm political connections (PC) negatively predict enforcement actions,... View Details

Keywords: Comment Letters; Political Connections; Regulatory Capture; SEC Enforcement; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics

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March 2015
Case

Guiding Professional Accountants to Do the Right Thing

By: Paul Healy, V.G. Narayanan and Penelope Rossano

The Ethics Advisory Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) provides training and support for member Chartered Accountants to help them deal with difficult professional situations. Members can seek help through call centers and... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Ethics; Professional Conduct

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July 2013
Technical Note

Competition Simulator Exercise: Questions

By: Eric Van den Steen

In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the simulator lets students explore horizontal differentiation with and without price... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of Strategy; Economics Of Competition; Competition; Economics; Game Theory; Competitive Strategy; Marketing Strategy

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September 2009 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Intellectual Ventures

By: Andrei Hagiu, David B. Yoffie and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Intellectual Ventures creates and acquires intellectual property, which it then seeks to monetize through non-exclusive licensing. In early 2009, as an increasing number of companies were trying to position themselves as leading intermediaries in the market for... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Service Operations; Research and Development; Technology; Service Industry

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1987
Working Paper

Tests of Excess Forecast Volatility in the Foreign Exchange and Stock Markets

By: K. A. Froot

Simple regression tests that have power against the alternatives that asset prices and expected future asset returns are excessively volatile are developed and performed for the foreign exchange and stock markets. These tests have a number of advantages over... View Details