Publications

November 2023
Technical Note

How Decentralized are Layer 1 Protocols? The Costs and Benefits of Decentralization in the Blockchain Ecosystem

By: Marco Di Maggio

June 1997 (Revised January 1999)
Background Note

Understanding Costs for Management Decisions

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Defines types of costs--current, sunk, opportunity, relevant, differential--and their use in management and management decision making. Contrasts single-period and multiple-period cost analysis. View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Decision Making

2013
Working Paper

The Impact of Conformance and Experiential Quality on Healthcare Cost and Clinical Performance

By: Claire Senot, Aravind Chandrasekaran, Peter T. Ward and Anita L. Tucker

The quality of operational processes is an important driver of performance in hospitals. In particular, processes that reliably deliver both evidence-based and patient-centered care, which we call conformance and experiential quality, respectively, have been argued to... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Experiential Quality; Conformance Quality; Clinical Outcomes; Cost Efficiency; Quality; Service Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Performance; Outcome or Result; Health Industry

December 2017
Article

Overall Cost Comparison of Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Procedures with Endoscopist- or Anesthesia-Supported Sedation by Activity-Based Costing Techniques

By: Richard A. Helmers, James A. Dilling, Christopher R. Chaffee, Mark V. Larson, Bradly J. Narr, Derek A. Haas and Robert S. Kaplan

Endoscopic/Colonoscopic procedures are done either with gastroenterologist-administered conscious sedation or with anesthesia-administered sedation with propofol. Anesthesia-administered sedation has medical and patient benefits but is more expensive to administer. We... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Activity Based Costing and Management

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

To improve any business, managers need to understand how much it costs to produce a profitable product. It seems a simple task, but the process of securing and analyzing the data can be incredibly complex and organizationally taxing. In... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

1998
Book

Cost and Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Robin Cooper

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits

Find at Harvard

Article

Quantifying the Benefits from a Care Coordination Program for Tracheostomy Placement in Neonates

By: Christen Caloway, Alisa Yamasaki, Kevin M. Callans, Mahek Shah, Robert S. Kaplan and Christopher Hartnick

Value-based care models are becoming instrumental in structuring clinical care delivery in our healthcare climate. Our objective was to determine the value associated with implementation of a Family-Centered Care Coordination (FCCC) program for neonates undergoing... View Details

Keywords: Family-centered Care; Value-based Healthcare; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Activity Based Costing and Management

2012
Article

The Cost and Timing of Financial Distress

By: Christopher Parsons

Assessments of the trade-off theory have typically compared the present value of tax benefits to the present value of bankruptcy costs. We verify that this comparison overwhelmingly favors tax benefits, suggesting that firms are under-leveraged. However, when we... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

Find at Harvard

January 2005 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Parisian: productivity and selling cost

By: Rajiv Lal and Arar Han

Presents the dilemma facing George Jones with respect to the high selling cost at Parisian Department Stores. The challenges to be considered reflect issues at different levels of the organization, including individual salespeople, the store itself, and the merchandise... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Executive Compensation; Production; Sales; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Retail Industry

12 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

Regulators Ease Up on Companies Generating Political Benefits

serious diagnosis that would be reimbursed at a higher rate. The problem is a huge drain on taxpayers, costing an estimated $44 billion in 2012, a full 10 percent of Medicare's payments. At the same time, hospitals, especially nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

24 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

under-staffed facility,” Mukherjee explains in the case study. “Our goal cannot be to deliver care at the cheapest cost; it should be to have sufficient resources to do what is right for the patient.” One clear benefit of using... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

2021
Working Paper

The Health Costs of Cost-Sharing

By: Amitabh Chandra, Evan Flack and Ziad Obermeyer

We use the design of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit program to demonstrate three facts about the health consequences of cost-sharing. First, we show that an as-if-random increase of 33.6% in out-of-pocket price (11.0 percentage points (p.p.) change in... View Details

Keywords: Cost-sharing; Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Health; Consumer Behavior

04 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

The Real Cost of Bribery

understanding of the benefits of bribery—facilitating entry into a market, for starters," says Serafeim, an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management unit. "But we still have a much more limited understanding about... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

November 1990 (Revised August 1992)
Case

American Airlines (B): Compensation and Cost Reduction

American Airlines' strategy in the 1990s calls for continued growth, improvements in customer service, and cost reduction. Central to cost reduction efforts is the need to contain labor costs. After having signed a very expensive new contract with its pilots' union in... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Labor Unions; Compensation and Benefits; Air Transportation Industry; United States

13 Jun 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

That Costs HOW Much?

graphicola Price is important to consumers not just because it determines whether they can afford to purchase that purse or patio set. The cost of an item sets the buyer's expectations as to how the product or service will perform and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

06 Jul 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do We Pay for the Costs of Globalization?

Should We Encourage the Redistribution of Benefits of Globalization? If So, How? The benefits of globalization outweigh the costs. But the costs are not being distributed... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Manufacturing

Article

A Blueprint for Pharmacy Benefits Managers to Increase Value

By: William Shrank, Michael E. Porter, Sachin H. Jain and Niteesh K. Choudhary

Pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) have a unique opportunity to promote public health and generate value in the healthcare system. However, PBMs are largely evaluated on their ability to control costs rather than improve health. PBMs should be evaluated along three... View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Health; System; Cost Management; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Value; Innovation and Invention; Performance Effectiveness; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry