Publications

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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

Keywords: Optimal Taxation; Income Tax; Social Welfare; Elasticity; Income; Taxation; Policy

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13 Mar 2018
First Look

March 13, 2018

multidivisional enterprises that have diversified into related product lines. The present book aims to fill in this gap in the literature by adopting a coherent approach to this elusive subject. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

The Lunar Gateway, Moon vs. Mars, and the Political Governance of Space Activities

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang

In 2017, the Trump Administration made a bold claim—that they would return the next man and the first woman to the lunar surface by 2024, this time to establish a sustainable presence to enable further exploration in the solar system. With the Artemis Program, NASA has... View Details

Keywords: Space; Space Economy; Aerospace; Nasa; Governance; Policy; International Relations; Infrastructure

2014
Working Paper

Financing Risk and Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We provide a model of investment into new ventures that demonstrates why some places, times, and industries should be associated with a greater degree of experimentation by investors. Investors respond to financing risk―a forecast of limited future funding―by modifying... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Financial Markets; Financing and Loans; Investment; Price Bubble; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Risk and Uncertainty

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January 2014 (Revised February 2016)
Case

U.S. Government Debt and the Debate over a Balanced Budget Amendment

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Katrina Flanagan and Alastair Su

In the first decade of the 21st century, national debt as a share of GDP rose dramatically in the United States and across the developed world. This case consists of excerpts from leading commentators explaining and commenting on this trend and the economic and moral... View Details

Keywords: National Debt; Social Discount Rate; Ricardian Equivalence; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; United States

March 2017
Case

Swagbucks

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

In early 2016, Chuck Davis, chairman and CEO of Prodege LLC, parent company of the brand promotion business Swagbucks, and Josef Gorowitz, Prodege’s founder and president, must decide whether to acquire MyPoints, a competitor to Swagbucks, after the company’s... View Details

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

work, highlighting recent psychological investigations that explore the emergence, practice, and implications of colorblindness. We conclude by discussing alternative strategies for managing diversity, underscoring the importance of an... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2013
Working Paper

Is a VC Partnership Greater Than the Sum of Its Partners?

By: Michael Ewens and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

This paper investigates whether individual venture capitalists have repeatable investment skill and to what extent their skill is impacted by the VC firm where they work. We examine a unique dataset that tracks the performance of individual venture capitalists'... View Details

Keywords: Investing; Persistence; Performance Persistence; Theory Of The Firm; Venture Capital; Organizations; Human Capital; Performance Evaluation

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22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

Publisher's Link: http://hbr.org/product/sleeping-with-your-smartphone-how-to-break-the-24-/an/10816-HBK-ENG Assessing Country Competitiveness: The Case of Spain Authors:Mercedes Delgado and Christian H.M. Ketels Publication:In Innovation, Global Change and Territorial... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 13, 2010

to each strategy. By "inviting in the lions" to critique your idea—and being prepared for them—you'll capture busy people's attention, help them grasp your proposal's value, and secure their commitment to implementing the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Ben Bernanke: Person of the Year?

By: Lakshmi Iyer and Matthew C. Weinzierl

In response to the economic and financial crisis of 2008–2009, the Federal Reserve greatly expanded the scale and scope of its activities. Though lauded by many experts for its actions, the Fed and its chairman, Ben Bernanke, faced harsh criticism from some public... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Central Banking; Governance Controls; Policy; Crisis Management; Power and Influence; Public Administration Industry; United States

23 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 23, 2015

Experiment of On-the-job Learning of Knowledge Production by Local Workers Reporting to Return Migrants By: Choudhury, Prithwiraj Abstract—I study whether return migrants facilitate knowledge production by... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 14

list of the most eminent psychological scientists, provide a broad range of insightful perspectives. This book is essential reading for students, researchers, and professionals interested in learning about the development of the biggest ideas in modern psychological... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 12

income between two organizations in similar businesses. It can be measured by the "Four Rs" of referrals and retention of employees, returns to labor, and relationships with customers that foster customer referrals and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 17

Working PapersUser, and Open Collaborative Innovation: Ascendent Economic Models Authors:Carliss Y. Baldwin and Eric von Hippel Abstract In this paper we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2015
Case

Twine Health

By: Robert S. Huckman, Ariel D. Stern and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2014, Dr. John Moore (CEO), Frank Moss (chairman), and Scott Gilroy (CTO) of Twine Health (Twine) had to resolve several challenges that threatened to restrict the widespread dissemination of its sole product, Twine. Twine was a cloud-based platform that... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Chronic Disease; Technology Adoption; Digital Health; Health Acceleration Challenge; Strategy; Disease Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Health Industry; United States; Massachusetts

2008
Working Paper

On Best-Response Bidding in GSP Auctions

By: Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Giotis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna R. Karlin, Claire Mathieu and Michael Schwarz

How should players bid in keyword auctions such as those used by Google, Yahoo! and MSN? We model ad auctions as a dynamic game of incomplete information, so we can study the convergence and robustness properties of various strategies. In particular, we consider... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Game Theory; Mathematical Methods; Competitive Strategy

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10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

within markets: When sentiment is high, future returns are low on relatively difficult to arbitrage and difficult to value stocks. Private capital flows appear to be one mechanism by which sentiment spreads across markets and forms global... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2015 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Immigration Policy in Germany (A)

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Katrina Flanagan and Alastair Su

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel faced economic and moral pressure to encourage greater immigration from struggling European, and especially Eurozone, countries after the economic downturn that began in 2008. In fact, it was possible that both the Euro currency union... View Details

Keywords: Citizenship; Optimal Currency Unions; Globalized Economies and Regions; Immigration; Policy; Germany; European Union