Publications

April 2021
Article

Evaluating Firm-Level Expected-Return Proxies: Implications for Estimating Treatment Effects

By: Charles M.C. Lee, Eric C. So and Charles C.Y. Wang

We introduce a parsimonious framework for choosing among alternative expected-return proxies (ERPs) when estimating treatment effects. By comparing ERPs’ measurement-error variances in the cross section and in time series, we provide new evidence on the relative... View Details

Keywords: Implied Cost Of Capital; Expected Returns; Cost of Capital; Investment Return; Performance Evaluation

01 Dec 2005
News

Campaign Ends, Exceeds Expectations

leadership. When the School reaches the close of its capital campaign at the end of December, it is safe to say the historic fundraising effort will have been a resounding success. The Campaign for Harvard Business School exceeded View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

November 1995 (Revised October 1996)
Background Note

Expectations and Stereotypes: How Do They Affect the Deal?

By: Kathleen L. McGinn

Designed to provide students with a basic insight into recognizing the productive and destructive aspects of expectations and stereotypes, and their consequent effects on negotiation. View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Acquisition; Management; Negotiation Deal; Performance Expectations; Prejudice and Bias

Research Summary

Effective Capital Market Communications

Hutton's most recent research and cases examine how managers enhance the credibility and effectiveness of their financial reports and voluntary disclosures. Her most recent working paper, "Effective Voluntary Disclosure" (co-authored with Greg Miller, HBS, and Douglas... View Details

01 Mar 2012
News

School’s Financial Picture Brighter than Expected

HBS finished fiscal year 2011 with a stronger financial performance than expected despite the lingering effects of the recent recession. Revenue for the year July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, exceeded the... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

2025
Working Paper

A Preference for Revision Absent Improvement

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton

People regularly encounter revised stimuli (e.g., revised versions of products, new editions of books, tweaked recipes, and technological updates). In principle, a world of constant revision should benefit people by affording them the most up-to-date offerings. In... View Details

Keywords: Product Change; Versioning; Expectancy Effects; Heuristics; Intuitive Processing; Product Marketing; Change; Perception; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

May 2014
Article

Information and Two-Sided Platform Profits

By: Andrei Hagiu and Hanna Halaburda

We study the effect of different levels of information on two-sided platform profits under monopoly and competition. One side (developers) is always informed about all prices and therefore forms responsive expectations. In contrast, we allow the other side (users) to... View Details

Keywords: Responsive Expectations; Passive Expectations; Wary Expectations; Information; Performance Expectations; Two-Sided Platforms; Monopoly

SSRN

Article

The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Outcomes and Expectations

By: Alexander Bartik, Marianne Bertrand, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton

To explore the impact of COVID on small businesses, we conducted a survey of more than 5,800 small businesses between March 28 and April 4, 2020. Several themes emerged. First, mass layoffs and closures had already occurred—just a few weeks into the crisis. Second, the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Stimulus; CARES Act; Health Pandemics; Small Business; Surveys

17 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Expectations, Network Effects and Platform Pricing

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Hanna Hałaburda; Entertainment & Recreation

06 Aug 2014
News

Boards can get better at expecting the unexpected

09 Dec 2020
News

Voters Often Opt for Candidate They Expect to Win

Article

A Prescriptive Analytics Framework for Optimal Policy Deployment Using Heterogeneous Treatment Effects

By: Edward McFowland III, Sandeep Gangarapu, Ravi Bapna and Tianshu Sun

We define a prescriptive analytics framework that addresses the needs of a constrained decision-maker facing, ex ante, unknown costs and benefits of multiple policy levers. The framework is general in nature and can be deployed in any utility maximizing context, public... View Details

Keywords: Prescriptive Analytics; Heterogeneous Treatment Effects; Optimization; Observed Rank Utility Condition (OUR); Between-treatment Heterogeneity; Machine Learning; Decision Making; Analysis; Mathematical Methods

Purchase

03 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Platforms and Limits to Network Effects

Keywords: by Hanna Halaburda & Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

2022
Working Paper

Heterogeneity of Gain-Loss Attitudes and Expectations-Based Reference Points

By: Pol Campos-Mercade, Lorenz Goette, Thomas Graeber, Alex Kellogg and Charles Sprenger

Existing tests of reference-dependent preferences assume universal loss aversion. This paper examines heterogeneity in gain-loss attitudes, and explores its implications for identifying models of the reference point. In two experimental settings we measure gain-loss... View Details

Keywords: Reference-dependent Preferences; Rational Expectations; Personal Equilibrium; Endowment Effect; Expectations-based Reference Points