Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,667)
- Faculty Publications (400)
- February 1989 (Revised November 1991)
- Case
Science Technology Co.--1985
By: Thomas R. Piper
The CEO of a U.S. electronics firm is assessing the financial forecasts and the financing plan prepared by the chief financial officer. Given the cyclicality of the industry and the volatility of the firm's performance, the CEO is unsure as to the usefulness of... View Details
- December 1988
- Article
Ordinal Independence in Non-Linear Utility Theory
By: Jerry R. Green and Bruno Jullien
Individual behavior under uncertainty is characterized using a new axiom, ordinal independence, which is a weakened form of the von Neumann-Morgcnslern independence axiom. It states that if two distributions share a tail in common, then this tail can be modified... View Details
Keywords: Preferences
- August 1988 (Revised August 1989)
- Case
Poletown Dilemma, The
By: Thomas R. Piper
Senior management of General Motors must select a site for a new assembly plant to replace two plants located in Detroit. The economics strongly favor a site in an adjacent state. However, a relocation would have substantial, negative impact on the existing work force,... View Details
- Article
'Making Book Against Oneself,' the Independence Axiom, and Non-Linear Utility Theory
By: Jerry R. Green
An individual with known preferences over lotteries can be led to accept random wealth distributions different from his initial endowment by a sequential process in which some uncertainty is resolved and he is offered a new lottery in place of the remaining... View Details
- January 1987
- Article
Posterior Implementability in a Two-person Decision Problem
By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont
When a decision rule is implemented using a Bayesian incentive compatible mechanism in which the messages are publicly observable, the players' information is augmented by their observation of each others' strategies. In this paper we study the set of Bayesian... View Details
- May 1986 (Revised February 1991)
- Case
Wilson Lumber Co.
By: Thomas R. Piper
The Wilson Lumber Co. is faced with a need for increased bank financing due to its rapid sales growth and low profitability. Students must determine the reasons for the rising bank borrowing, estimate the amount of borrowing needed, and assess the attractiveness of the... View Details
- September 1985
- Background Note
Pre-Start Analysis: A Framework for Thinking About Business Ventures
By: Howard H. Stevenson and John R. Van Slyke
Describes the thought process an entrepreneur should undergo before committing to a course of action. Covers understanding the opportunity--assessing the critical skills, resources, relationships, and approvals--developing an action plan; forming a business entity;... View Details
- 1985
- Working Paper
Sequential Innovation and Market Structure
By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont
This paper concerns the introduction of a sequence of new, higher-quality durable products in a market in which there already exists a lower-quality substitute. The product has the further attribute that a real resource cost is incurred at the time a higher-quality... View Details
- February 1984 (Revised February 1986)
- Case
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.: Titanium Dioxide
By: W. Carl Kester, Robert R. Glauber, David W. Mullins Jr. and Stacy S. Dick
Disequilibrium in the $350 million TiO2 market has prompted Du Pont's Pigments Department to develop two strategies for competing in this market in the future. The growth strategy has a smaller internal rate of return than the alternative strategy due to large capital... View Details
- Article
Participation Constraints in the Vickrey Auction
By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont
Economic agents are characterized by two privately observable parameters: their willingness to pay for an item being auctioned, and their reservation utility level which must be exceeded, in expectation, to induce them to participate in this auction. This creates a... View Details
- Article
Wage-Employment Contracts
By: Jerry R. Green and Charles M. Kahn
This paper studies the efficient agreements about the dependence of workers' earnings on employment, when the employment level is controlled by firms. The firms' superior information about profitability conditions is responsible for this form of contract governance.... View Details
- 01 Aug 1980
- Conference Presentation
Power and Change in and by Organizations: Setting Intellectual Directions for Organizational Sociology
By: R. M. Kanter
- 1980
- Working Paper
Taxation and the Ex-dividend Day Behavior of Common Stock Prices
By: Jerry R. Green
The behavior of stock prices around ex-dividend days has been suggested as evidence for tax-induced clientele effects and as a means to estimate the average effective tax rate faced by investors. In this paper these possibilities are examined theoretically and... View Details
- 1980
- Working Paper
Components of Manufacturing Inventories: A Structural Model of the Production Process
By: Alan J. Auerbach and Jerry R. Green
This paper presents a structural model of production and inventory accumulation based on the hypothesis of cost minimization. It differs from previous attempts in several respects. First, it integrates the analysis of input inventories with output inventories, treating... View Details
- 1979
- Article
Approximating the Efficiency Gain of Tax Reforms
By: Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski
Proper analysis of tax reform requires evaluation of the welfare effects induced by a change from one tax system to another. We present two methods for estimating these changes using only local information pertaining to an initial equilibrium with distortive taxes. It... View Details
- Article
Inflation and Taxes in a Growing Economy with Debt and Equity
By: M. Feldstein, Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski
Our tax system was designed for an economy with little or no inflation. The current paper shows that inflation causes capricious changes in the effective rate of tax on capital income and therefore in the real net rate of return that savers receive. This is not only a... View Details
- 1978
- Article
A Theorem on the Identifiability of the von Neumann-Morgenstern Utility Function from Asset Demands
By: Jerry R. Green, Lawrence J. Lau and Heraklis Polemarchakis
If the demand for risky assets is determined by the maximization of an analytic van Neumann-Morgenstern utility function, and if these demands are known as a function of the assets’ prices, then this utility function can be constructed without ambiguity. View Details
- Article
Characterization of Satisfactory Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences for Public Goods
By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont
Social decision mechanisms that admit dominant strategies and result in Pareto optima are characterized by the class of mechanisms proposed by Groves. The concept of decision mechanisms is generalized and the characterization is shown to extend to these cases. View Details
- January 1977
- Case
MRC, Inc. (Consolidated)
By: Thomas R. Piper
A large diversified company must develop a strategy for a division whose performance has deteriorated due to its aging product. Alternatives range from liquidation to a major investment in a new product. The formal capital budgeting system is compared with the informal... View Details