Filter Results:
(1,171)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,969)
- People (2)
- News (289)
- Research (1,171)
- Events (33)
- Multimedia (12)
- Faculty Publications (745)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,969)
- People (2)
- News (289)
- Research (1,171)
- Events (33)
- Multimedia (12)
- Faculty Publications (745)
Page 1 of 1,171
Results →
Sort by
- January 2014
- Article
Pareto Efficiency in Robust Optimization
By: Dan Iancu and Nikolaos Trichakis
This paper formalizes and adapts the well-known concept of Pareto efficiency in the context of the popular robust optimization (RO) methodology for linear optimization problems. We argue that the classical RO paradigm need not produce solutions that possess the... View Details
Iancu, Dan, and Nikolaos Trichakis. "Pareto Efficiency in Robust Optimization." Management Science 60, no. 1 (January 2014): 130–147.
- 2020
- Working Paper
Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation
By: Matti Tuomala and Matthew C. Weinzierl
Prioritarianism has been at the center of the formal approach to optimal tax theory since its modern starting point in Mirrlees (1971), but most theorists’ use of it is motivated by tractability rather than explicit normative reasoning. We characterize analytically and... View Details
Keywords: Prioritarianism; Optimal Taxation; Utilitarianism; Redistribution; Inverse-optimum; Taxation; Theory
Tuomala, Matti, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, December 2020.
- 2022
- Chapter
Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation
By: Matti Tuomala and Matthew Weinzierl
Prioritarianism has been at the center of the formal approach to optimal tax theory since its modern starting point in Mirrlees (1971), but most theorists’ use of it is motivated by tractability rather than explicit normative reasoning. We characterize analytically and... View Details
Keywords: Prioritarianism; Optimal Taxation; Utilitarianism; Redistribution; Inverse-optimum; Taxation; Theory; Policy
Tuomala, Matti, and Matthew Weinzierl. "Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation." In Prioritarianism in Practice, edited by Matthew Adler and Ole Norheim. Cambridge University Press, 2022. (Also published in HBR Insights, December 2020.)
- July–August 2011
- Article
Robust Optimization Made Easy with ROME
By: Joel Goh and Melvyn Sim
We introduce ROME, an algebraic modeling toolbox for a class of robust optimization problems. ROME serves as an intermediate layer between the modeler and optimization solver engines, allowing modelers to express robust optimization problems in a mathematically... View Details
Keywords: Robust Optimization; Algebraic Modeling Toolbox; MATLAB; Stochastic Programming; Decision Rules; Inventory Control; PERT; Project Management; Portfolio Optimization; Information Technology; Mathematical Methods; Operations
Goh, Joel, and Melvyn Sim. "Robust Optimization Made Easy with ROME." Operations Research 59, no. 4 (July–August 2011): 973–985.
- 2020
- Working Paper
Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation
By: Benjami Lockwood, Afras Y. Sial and Matthew C. Weinzierl
Economists typically check the robustness of their results by comparing them across plausible ranges of parameter values and model structures. A preferable approach to robustness—for the purposes of policymaking and evaluation—is to design policy that takes these... View Details
Lockwood, Benjami, Afras Y. Sial, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 28098, November 2020.
- Article
Optimal Capital-Gains Taxation under Limited Information
By: Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski
Taxation of capital gains at realization may distort individuals' decisions regarding holding or selling during an asset's lifetime. This creates the problem of designing a tax structure for capital gains so as to induce efficient patterns of holding and selling.... View Details
Green, Jerry R., and Eytan Sheshinski. "Optimal Capital-Gains Taxation under Limited Information." Journal of Political Economy 86, no. 6 (December 1978): 1143–1158.
- Article
Portfolio Value-at-Risk Optimization for Asymmetrically Distributed Asset Returns
By: Joel Goh, Kian Guan Lim, Melvyn Sim and Weina Zhang
We propose a new approach to portfolio optimization by separating asset return distributions into positive and negative half-spaces. The approach minimizes a newly-defined Partitioned Value-at-Risk (PVaR) risk measure by using half-space statistical information. Using... View Details
Goh, Joel, Kian Guan Lim, Melvyn Sim, and Weina Zhang. "Portfolio Value-at-Risk Optimization for Asymmetrically Distributed Asset Returns." European Journal of Operational Research 221, no. 2 (September 1, 2012): 397–406.
- Article
(Too) Optimistic about Optimism: The Belief that Optimism Improves Performance.
By: Elizabeth R. Tenney, Jennifer M. Logg and Don A Moore
A series of experiments investigated why people value optimism and whether they are right to do so. In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants prescribed more optimism for someone implementing decisions than for someone deliberating, indicating that people prescribe... View Details
Keywords: Optimism; Bias; Accuracy; Decision Phase; Performance; Attitudes; Performance Improvement; Perception; Outcome or Result
Tenney, Elizabeth R., Jennifer M. Logg, and Don A Moore. "(Too) Optimistic about Optimism: The Belief that Optimism Improves Performance." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108, no. 3 (March 2015): 377–399. (lead article.)
- 2021
- Article
Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation
By: Benjamin B. Lockwood, Afras Sial and Matthew C. Weinzierl
Economists typically check the robustness of their results by comparing them across plausible ranges of parameter values and model structures. A preferable approach to robustness—for the purposes of policymaking and evaluation—is to design policy that takes these... View Details
Lockwood, Benjamin B., Afras Sial, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation." Tax Policy and the Economy 35 (2021).
- March 2025
- Article
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We study the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias with naive beliefs. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty.... View Details
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Art. 103996. Journal of Financial Economics 165 (March 2025).
- Article
Genetic Optimization of Photonic Bandgap Structures
By: Joel Goh, Ilya Fushman, Dirk Englund and Jelena Vuckovic
Goh, Joel, Ilya Fushman, Dirk Englund, and Jelena Vuckovic. "Genetic Optimization of Photonic Bandgap Structures." Optics Express 15, no. 13 (June 25, 2007): 8218–8230.
- 2019
- Working Paper
Optimal Interventions for Increasing Healthy Food Consumption Among Low Income Households
By: Retsef Levi, Elisabeth Paulson and Georgia Perakis
The federal government currently spends over $100 billion per year on policies aimed to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among low income households. These include price-, nutrition education-, and access-related interventions. Currently, the government... View Details
Keywords: Bi-level Optimization; Optimal Subsidies; Public Policy; Food Policy; Central Planner; Government Administration; Poverty; Food; Nutrition
Levi, Retsef, Elisabeth Paulson, and Georgia Perakis. "Optimal Interventions for Increasing Healthy Food Consumption Among Low Income Households." MIT Sloan Research Paper, No. 6053-19, November 2019.
- 06 Oct 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Optimal Illiquidity
- 2022
- Working Paper
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and naive present bias. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each witha different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Collected... View Details
Keywords: Illiquidity; Commitment; Flexibility; Savings; Social Security; Retirement; Government Legislation; Taxation; Saving
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Working Paper, July 2022.
- November–December 2014
- Article
Accountable? The Problems and Solutions of Online Ad Optimization
By: Benjamin Edelman
Online advertising might seem to be the most measurable form of marketing ever invented.
Comprehensive records can track who clicked what ad—and often who saw what ad—to compare
those clicks with users' subsequent purchases. Ever-cheaper IT makes this tracking... View Details
Keywords: Online Advertising; Fraud; Optimization; Incentives; Digital Marketing; Contracts; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Design
Edelman, Benjamin. "Accountable? The Problems and Solutions of Online Ad Optimization." IEEE Security & Privacy 12, no. 6 (November–December 2014): 102–107.
- Article
Optimality Bias in Moral Judgment
By: Julian De Freitas and Samuel G.B. Johnson
We often make decisions with incomplete knowledge of their consequences. Might people nonetheless expect others to make optimal choices, despite this ignorance? Here, we show that people are sensitive to moral optimality: that people hold moral agents accountable... View Details
Keywords: Moral Judgment; Lay Decision Theory; Theory Of Mind; Causal Attribution; Moral Sensibility; Decision Making
De Freitas, Julian, and Samuel G.B. Johnson. "Optimality Bias in Moral Judgment." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 79 (November 2018): 149–163.
- Research Summary
Optimal Decision Making Under Uncertainty
Inventory control problems in supply chains. In this stream of theoretical research, Professor Goh has investigated how inventory should be optimally managed in supply chains. Specifically, he has studied how supply chains can make decisions to operate... View Details
- Article
Oracle Efficient Private Non-Convex Optimization
By: Seth Neel, Aaron Leon Roth, Giuseppe Vietri and Zhiwei Steven Wu
One of the most effective algorithms for differentially private learning and optimization is objective perturbation. This technique augments a given optimization problem (e.g. deriving from an ERM problem) with a random linear term, and then exactly solves it.... View Details
Neel, Seth, Aaron Leon Roth, Giuseppe Vietri, and Zhiwei Steven Wu. "Oracle Efficient Private Non-Convex Optimization." Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 37th (2020).
- Fourth Quarter 2017
- Article
Optimal Tilts: Combining Persistent Characteristic Portfolios
By: Malcolm Baker, Ryan Taliaferro and Terry Burnham
We examine the optimal weighting of four tilts in U.S. equity markets from 1968 through 2014. We define a “tilt” as a characteristic-based portfolio strategy that requires relatively low annual turnover. This is a continuum, with small size (a very persistent... View Details
Baker, Malcolm, Ryan Taliaferro, and Terry Burnham. "Optimal Tilts: Combining Persistent Characteristic Portfolios." Financial Analysts Journal 73, no. 4 (Fourth Quarter 2017): 75–89.