Publications

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12 May 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Financing Payouts

Keywords: by Joan Farre-Mensa, Roni Michaely & Martin C. Schmalz

Fall 2011
Article

A Brief Postwar History of U.S. Consumer Finance

By: Gunnar Trumbull and Peter Tufano

In this brief history of U.S. consumer finance since World War II, the sector is defined based on the functions delivered by firms in the form of payments, savings and investing, borrowing, managing risk, and providing advice. Evidence of major trends in consumption,... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Finance; Consumer Credit; U.s. History; Consumer Behavior; Personal Finance; Credit; Trends; History; United States

2025
Working Paper

The Hidden Costs of Working Multiple Jobs: Implications for Spending Behavior and Wellbeing

By: Paige Tsai and Ryan W. Buell

Problem definition: Amidst inflation, rising costs of living, an explosion in remote and gig working opportunities, and an increase in the part-time labor mix in economies around the world, it is becoming evermore commonplace for people to earn labor income... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Operations; Employee Behavior; Job Design and Levels; Personal Finance; Well-being; Happiness; Satisfaction; Wages

SSRN

2022
Article

The Effects of Public and Private Equity Markets on Firm Behavior

By: Shai Bernstein

In this article, I review the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of public and private equity markets on firm behavior, emphasizing the consequences that emerge from disclosure requirements, ownership concentration, and degree of firm standardization.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance And Governance; Financing Policy; Commercialization; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Public Equity; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Cost of Capital

Purchase

2007
Chapter

Behavioral Corporate Finance: A Survey

By: Malcolm Baker, Richard Ruback and Jeffrey Wurgler

Research in behavioral corporate finance takes two distinct approaches. The first emphasizes that investors are less than fully rational. It views managerial financing and investment decisions as rational responses to securities market mispricing. The second approach... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Prejudice and Bias; Debt Securities; Financial Management; Price; Theory; Investment; Problems and Challenges; Behavioral Finance; Corporate Finance

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist?

from one of Smith's earlier works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, that caught the attention of Harvard Business School professor Nava Ashraf and coauthors Colin Camerer and George Loewenstein. In "Adam Smith, Behavioral... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

Behavioral Corporate Finance: A Survey

In this chapter, we survey the theory and evidence of behavioral corporate finance, which generally takes one of two approaches. The market timing and catering approach views managerial financing and investment decisions as rational managerial responses to... View Details

Research Summary

Financing New Business Formation

By: Paul A. Gompers

New business creation has become a potent force for economicdevelopment in the United States. Prior to 1980, large firms created the majority of new jobs in the American economy. While considerable debate rages over whether small firms are the source of recent job... View Details

May 1999
Background Note

Note on Behavioral Pricing

By: John T. Gourville

The note introduces the behavioral or psychological aspects of consumer price acceptance. Begins by reviewing the traditional economic approach to product pricing and consumer price acceptance--namely, that consumers should be willing to purchase anytime a product's... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Decisions; Fairness; Price; Marketing Strategy; Behavior; Perspective; Public Opinion

Educators

Purchase

2013
Chapter

Behavioral Corporate Finance: A Current Survey

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

We survey the theory and evidence of behavioral corporate finance, which generally takes one of two approaches. The market timing and catering approach views managerial financing and investment decisions as rational managerial responses to securities mispricing. The... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Theory; Corporate Finance; Financial Management; Investment; Market Timing; Behavioral Finance; Prejudice and Bias; Economics; Forecasting and Prediction

28 Oct 2009
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Begins Teaching Consumer Finance

MBA programs in America and the top five in Europe. While some offer banking courses, and others offer behavioral courses, none had a course that was specifically about consumer finance. Here at HBS, we have a rich set of View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Financial Services; Education

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

financed them—declared such brick-and-mortar businesses were dinosaurs on their way to extinction. The success of Bluemercury proved the critics wrong. “We’ve always had a hard time being able to identify the skills and View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

Article

Behavioral Hazard in Health Insurance

By: Katherine Baicker, Sendhil Mullainathan and Joshua Schwartzstein

A fundamental implication of standard moral hazard models is overuse of low-value medical care because copays are lower than costs. In these models, the demand curve alone can be used to make welfare statements, a fact relied on by much empirical work. There is ample... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance Industry

June 1990
Article

Herd Behavior and Investment

Keywords: Behavior; Investment

Article

The Economics of Structured Finance

By: Joshua D. Coval, Jakub W. Jurek and Erik Stafford

This paper investigates the spectacular rise and fall of structured finance. The essence of structured finance activities is the pooling of economic assets like loans, bonds, and mortgages, and the subsequent issuance of a prioritized capital structure of claims, known... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Asset Management; Debt Securities; Investment; Risk Management; Behavior

June 1990
Article

Herd Behavior and Investment

By: David S. Scharfstein and Jeremy Stein

Keywords: Investment; Behavior

February 2007
Article

Strategic Bidder Behavior in Sponsored Search Auctions

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Ostrovsky

We examine sponsored search auctions run by Overture (now part of Yahoo!) and Google and present evidence of strategic bidder behavior in these auctions. Between June 15, 2002, and June 14, 2003, we estimate that Overture's revenue from sponsored search might have been... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Strategy; Behavior; Revenue; Performance Efficiency; Bids and Bidding; Search Technology