Publications

Educators

Article

Diverging Trends in Macro and Micro Volatility

By: Diego Comin and Sunil Mulani

This paper documents the diverging trends in volatility of the growth rate of sales at the aggregate and firm level. We establish that the upward trend in micro volatility is not simply driven by a compositional bias in the sample studied. We argue that this new fact... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Mathematical Methods; Theory; Sales; Growth and Development

December 2001 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Delays at Logan Airport

By: V.G. Narayanan and George Batta

Logan Airport is facing mounting delays for flights landings and takeoffs, especially in inclement weather. An additional runway and peak-period pricing are two alternatives being considered. View Details

Keywords: Price; Problems and Challenges; Decision Making; Mathematical Methods; Air Transportation Industry; Service Industry; Boston

Educators

June 2008
Article

Minimally Acceptable Altruism and the Ultimatum Game

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

I suppose that people react with anger when others show themselves not to be minimally altruistic. With heterogeneous agents, this can account for the experimental results of ultimatum and dictator games. Moreover, it can account for the surprisingly large fraction of... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Game Theory; Mathematical Methods

Web

From the Director | Baker Library

method, Baker Library Special Collections is pleased to present, From Inquiry to Action: Harvard Business School & the Case Method , an exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the teaching practice. Drawing from materials in the HBS... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Fiscal Policy under Convex Supply Curves

By: Shlok Goyal, Avi Lipton and Borui Niklas Zhu

Recent empirical evidence suggests that supply curves are convex. Supply curve convexity is at odds with conventional Phillips curves, which rely on an infinitely elastic underlying supply curve. This paper explores the effect of supply curve convexity on the... View Details

Keywords: Fiscal Stimulus; Fiscal Policy; Inflation; Inflation and Deflation; Macroeconomics; Policy; Mathematical Methods; United States

SSRN

2009
Working Paper

Patent Policy, Patent Pools, and the Accumulation of Claims in Sequential Innovation

By: Gaston Llanes and Stefano Trento

We present a dynamic model where the accumulation of patents generates an increasing number of claims on sequential innovation. We study the equilibrium innovation activity under three regimes: patents, no-patents and patent pools. Patent pools increase the probability... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Patents; Rights; Mathematical Methods

January 2006
Tutorial

Cost-Volume Profit Models

By: David F. Hawkins, V.G. Narayanan, Jacob Cohen and Michele Jurgens

Covers fixed, variable, and semivariable costs and their role in building and interpreting cost-volume-profit models. Introduces the cost-volume and contribution-volume-profit models and identifies some of their uses and limitations. Teaches how to use the... View Details

Keywords: Volume; Cost; Profit; Mathematical Methods

2007
Working Paper

Mental Accounting and Small Windfalls: Evidence from an Online Grocer

By: Katherine L. Milkman, John Beshears, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman

We study the effect of small windfalls on consumer spending decisions by examining the purchasing behavior of a sample of online grocery shoppers over the course of a year. We compare the purchases customers make when redeeming a $10-off coupon they received from their... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Consumer Behavior; Mathematical Methods; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

01 Dec 2011
News

Reimagining the MBA

Issue Focus: Leadership Illustration by Craig Frazier What HBS Learned from West Point The Evolving Case Method Issue Focus Li & Fung's Global Footprint Making the Leadership Case Related Faculty Research What Top Scholars Say about... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; FIELD program; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

Methods By: Choudhury, Prithwiraj, Ryan Allen, and Michael G. Endres Abstract—We describe how to employ machine learning (ML) methods in theory development. Compared to traditional causal inference methods,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Web

Curriculum | MBA

internship in the second summer. A typical candidate will follow the sample schedule outlined below. MBA/MPP Year 1 Harvard Kennedy School Fall Term Resources, Incentives and Choices I: Markets and Market Failures Quantitative Analysis and Empirical View Details

01 Mar 2008
News

HBS Career Highlights

full professor 1963 Named the first George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Business Administration 1965 Coauthors Business Policy: Text and Cases 1981 Authors Teaching by the Case Method (Teaching and the Case View Details

Keywords: Roland Christensen; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

Profile

Raja Bobbili

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? In my view, the case method is the be-all and end-all of business education – I couldn’t imagine a better way to learn business than through the dynamic process of discussing and debating... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management / Hedge Fund

01 Mar 2012
News

Great Expectations

exercises — some of which were pioneered in our Executive Education programs — that were immersive, field-based, and action-oriented. Our goal was to complement the case method with a more field-based approach to learning — one that would... View Details

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

Web

Statistical Resources - Research Computing Services

binary models and count data models An introduction to Arellano-Bond model An introduction to Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent estimators An introduction to mixed model An introduction to regressions when dependent variable is a proportion An... View Details

January 1994
Case

Evolving Finance Function: Judy C. Lewent at Merck & Co., Inc.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This case examines the career path of Merck's CFO, Judy C. Lewent, as a way of tracing changes over time in Merck's finance function. It describes the adoption of innovative quantitative analytical models, changes in job definitions and in the organization of the... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Mathematical Methods; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Design; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry

Educators

2023
Article

Estimating Causal Peer Influence in Homophilous Social Networks by Inferring Latent Locations.

By: Edward McFowland III and Cosma Rohilla Shalizi

Social influence cannot be identified from purely observational data on social networks, because such influence is generically confounded with latent homophily, that is, with a node’s network partners being informative about the node’s attributes and therefore its... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Homophily; Social Networks; Peer Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Power and Influence; Mathematical Methods

2017
Working Paper

Identifying Sources of Inefficiency in Health Care

By: Amitabh Chandra and Douglas O. Staiger

In medicine, the reasons for variation in treatment rates across hospitals serving similar patients are not well understood. Some interpret this variation as unwarranted and push standardization of care as a way of reducing allocative inefficiency. However, an... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Mathematical Methods

Fall 2012
Article

Innovation Strategy and Entry Deterrence

By: Ozge Turut and Elie Ofek

We model an incumbent's decision to pursue radical or incremental innovation when facing a rival entrant. The radical innovation may yield lucrative financial returns but entails significant technological and market-related uncertainties. It is also particularly... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Innovation Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Markets; Mathematical Methods